


A Party Like No Other

by Findmyway



Category: Derry Girls (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2021-04-14
Packaged: 2021-04-17 21:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21757009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Findmyway/pseuds/Findmyway
Summary: Chaos ensues at the soiree for the Chernobyl teens, as Michelle finds herself caught up in the issues of Erin, Clare and much to her own horror: Jenny Joyce. And to think all she wanted was to ride a fit Kozak fella...
Relationships: Michelle Mallon/Jenny Joyce
Comments: 16
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

‘Sweet Jesus, this party’s absolute shite,’ Michelle found herself thinking as she took a comforting swig out of her bottle of Pernod. The evening had started out grand with plenty of booze to go around and lots of dancing, but now Erin was doing her head in about the mere possibility of that prick James and his new girlfriend riding each other and it was driving her mad. Even worse was the fact that Clare had disappeared to god knows where, leaving her on her own to deal with Erin going completely mental over something she herself couldn’t give two shits about.

“We have to find him, Michelle,” the blonde girl urged frantically, nearly pulling her arm out of its socket and seemingly getting more wound-up as the minutes passed.

“ _ We  _ don’t have to do anything, shite-the-tights. I came here for two reasons: knocking back drinks and pulling a Kozak. I have zero interest in babysitting my dickbag of an English cousin. Now, quit your gurning and do a little dance. _ 2 Unlimited’s  _ on they’re absolute class.”

“Michelle, this is serious, alright? Who knows what that Katya might do to James if we don’t take action straight away,” Erin cried out, acting like James getting it on was going to directly lead to his death.

“Rock his wee Brit prick, that’s what. Listen: go bother Orla about this or something. She might actually give more of a fuck. I think I just saw her going back to the fountain again. If there’s anyone you should be having a cack attack over, I think it’s her, to be honest. She’s headed straight for a fucking sugar coma, the way she keeps stuffing down all that chocolate.” 

“Oh, she’ll handle it fine. She’s made of strong stuff Orla, but James…”

“Aye, I have to agree with ye there: James is a little bitch, always has been. Yesterday he tried to race me for the bathroom and I knocked him straight over. A real fella wouldn’t have let that happen. So, here’s a question: why do you care so much if some Russian girl bucks him? It’s  _ her _ letting a dirty Brit near her fanny, not you.”

“Katya’s from the Ukraine, Michelle: Chernobyl is situated in the Ukraine,” Erin hissed in an insulted manner from between her teeth, while making her signature constipated face. One would think she was from the place herself, with the way she got so riled up about these things.

“Sure: you can’t stand the sight of her, but we all need to remember where she’s from: that’s consistency right there. You haven’t answered my question, just so you know,” Michelle remarked before looking around for any trace of Artem and frowning when she couldn’t see him. He seemed to have just puffed up in smoke. One couldn’t really blame him though, with getting stuck with Jenny Joyce and all that: the poor fucker.

“What question? Look, Michelle, I don’t have time to be faffin’ about. She and James might already be at it.”

“Then he’s having more luck than I am: I haven’t even gotten the chance to properly chase Jenny’s Ukrainian fella with you babbling on and on. Look: do you fancy James or something? Because that would be well boggin’, Erin. Don’t sell yourself short, you could do better.”

“What? Don’t be daft: James is our friend. We need to keep him safe, that’s all.”

“Well, he’s not  _ my  _ friend. Also, he’s sixteen, not five: if he wants to do the deed just let him get on her. Listen here, Erin: you always want to be all noble and do the right thing, yeah?”

The blonde girl nodded eagerly, as she licked her lips, wondering where Michelle was going with this.

“Well, just think about all the Irish girls you’re saving by letting James do the dirty with a Russian…uck, sorry: Ukrainian. It’s a win-win: James gets to touch a girl for the first and probably last time in his miserable existence and our lot escapes,” her brown-haired friend explained with a toothy smile, looking like she’d just solved world hunger.

“Uck, Michelle, you are being no help. Where’s Clare off to? I might get more out of her,” Erin asked, wildly starting to look around for her other friend in the masses.

“With the size of this fucking house: who knows? She’s probably gone to piss off more people with her stupid Union Jack dress. Making a point, my arse,” Michelle gave an indifferent answer, before taking another swig from her trusty bottle. She much preferred her own mixture over Jenny Joyce’s vile-tasting punch, which was more sickeningly sweet fruit juice than anything else.

“Why, thank you, Michelle, thanks a lot!” Erin threw out in her faux overly dramatic way, before walking off with a shake of her head, hereby only prompting her friend to roll her eyes.

“Phew, saved me some trouble there. Artem: I hope you’re ready, cause here I come.”

* * *

“Seriously: you could fucking murder a bloke, hide him in one of these rooms and one would be none the wiser,” Michelle muttered to herself, after having found herself getting lost once again in one of the massive corridors with a shit-ton of doors. How loaded did that cow Jenny Joyce’s parents have to be, to be able to afford a place like this? She herself couldn’t even have breakfast without that fucker James breathing down her neck: life wasn’t fair. She was right in the middle of feeling very sorry for herself when all of a sudden Orla appeared right next to her from seemingly out of freaking nowhere.

“Awk, Michelle: this chocolate is the best I’ve ever tasted. It’s even better than aunt Mary’s and aunt Mary’s chocolate is cracker,” was all she said to her friend in her unique voice, appearing spaced out of her mind. The chocolate wasn’t at fault for that though: Orla seemed to just dander about perpetually high. The odd thing was that Michelle had never actually found any drugs when snooping through her friend’s stuff. Yeah, she knew it was wrong going through other people’s belongings and all that, but Orla seemed to be having a whale of a time constantly and if she could possibly share in the fun, she wasn’t gonna pass up an opportunity.

“Thank fuck, finally someone familiar in this god-forsaken joint. Orla…anymore news from your mental cousin? Last time I saw her, she was living out her saviour-complex by treating James like one of those wildlife animals she’s so sweet on.”

“Aye, Erin has a very kind heart, she has. I’m proud to be her cousin,” Orla completely managed to avoid the question, smiling as if in a trance.

“Right, have you seen Jenny’s fella then, by any chance? He’s tall, fit as fuck and perfect for mounting. I’m seeking to lose the other half of my virginity and I’d be damned if someone else gets to him first,” Michelle bit her lip, delighted at the prospect of some below the waist-action with that fine Eastern-European piece of candy.

“I haven’t seen him, but I did just spot Jenny over there. She was making quite a fuss over some bloke taking more than his share of Chupa-Chups,” Orla replied while pointing to her left, with a finger that was way too brown for its own good.

“Well, I guess desperate times call for desperate measures: Oi, Jenny! Any luck trapping your Kozak?!” Michelle sighed, before quickly marching over towards the owner of this impossible shack. This proving quite difficult as she had to once again wade through a sea of her shouting peers. In the jumbled mess of partygoers, she briefly seemed to catch sight of Erin clinging onto a frustrated James’s neck. Then again, it could have been any blonde girl accompanied by some poodle-haired git. She was gradually getting more sloshed and it was quite a miracle she was still able to walk in a straight line. She kept her flasks of booze close though: she was going to need some strong stuff if she was going to have to chit-chat with Jenny Joyce.

“My Koz..oh, you mean Artem? No, you see: I started looking everywhere for him, but then Aisling pointed me to my duties as a host. The amount of people disrespecting the rules is really quite astonishing. Sean O’Keefe has had  _ five  _ Chupa-Chups already, can you believe it? That means he ate four items of food that could have easily gone to someone else. How selfish can one get?” Jenny explained heatedly, while holding up five of her fingers, hereby nearly poking one of Michelle’s eyes out.

“Uck, thank you, Jenny: I can do basic math. I think you’re forgetting the main focus of me even bothering to talk to you, which is Artem.”

“Oh, right, so it is. Well, it’s all just so hectic, isn’t it? I mean: I know I shouldn’t have let him off his leash, but he really needed to use the bathroom, so I did the proper thing and let him go,” the party hostess proclaimed proudly with a nod.

This one was as bad as Erin, what with having her head shoved so far up her own arse, that she believed herself to be the greatest person alive since mother Teresa. In reality, Michelle could think of few people more selfish than the girl standing right across from her, at that very moment.

“Well, seeing as you’re the one that lost him: you’re gonna help me find him. Tonight, I’m gonna buck a Rusky fella or so help me god.”

“Buck a…oh, oh I see,” Jenny retorted quietly, cheeks tinging red in embarrassment as she picked up a pace next to her, causing the other girl to raise her eyebrows. The mere thought of sex seemed foreign to wee madame holier-than-thou. Then again: not much of a surprise there, really. Who would wanna try it on with her? You’d have to be out of your fucking mind or maybe on some of Orla’s secret drugs before you’d even hold hands with this one…that poor Artem. He’d done right in getting far away from her as soon as he saw fit.

“These are all the rooms I already searched. I think we’ll have more of a chance going upstairs,” Jenny commented, as they walked by some more closed doors.

“Well, lead the way: this is your fucking house, in case you forgot. I tried to navigate it, but it turned into an absolute shit-show. Now you can do the honours,” Michelle spoke impatiently, quickly pushing the shorter girl, who looked a bit intimidated, out in front of her.

“Just a quick word, Michelle: I know you’re fond of swearing, but don’t you think you ought to tone it down just a tad? Our lady in heaven hears it all, you know,” the prefect urged overly pleasantly with an exaggerated smile, as she pointed up at the ceiling.

“Wise up, Jenny,” was the curly-haired girl’s only comment, squinting her eyes threateningly before Jenny finally got the hint and turned around, slowly making her way up the stairs.

* * *

“Now, this is turning into quite a farce. We should have found him by now. Oh no: what if he’s gotten out through one of the windows?! I can’t ever face Sister Michael again! What if I get expelled from school?! I can’t get expelled from school! I’ve always been on my best behaviour!” Jenny had a near panic attack on the spot, as she was now pacing around like a headless chicken, right in the middle of her sitting room.

This only served to fuel Michelle’s frustration more. It wasn’t enough that Artem was nowhere to be found, even after the pair of them had seemingly looked in every nook and cranny. Now, this absolute melter was going to go gaga where she stood. She heaved a deep sigh: she should’ve been doing the horizontal tango with a fit Kozak by now, not be stuck in a room with a person she’d much prefer to see the back of.

“Oh, just calm yourself, will ye? For fuck’s sake. I’m sure he’s still somewhere in your massive dicking house. He just doesn’t wanna be found by you and I don’t blame him. Do you even know for sure that we checked the entire place? There’s quite a lot of ground to cover.”

“I’m afraid so, let’s see: there was the upstairs bathroom, downstairs bathroom, my room, the guestroom, the billiard room, the lounge, the library…”

Michelle slowly zoned out, slumping down on a brown leather armchair and lighting up a fag, as the other girl agitatedly kept naming rooms like they were in the latest edition of a game of fucking Cluedo.

“What is that you’re doing? You’re not…smoking, are you?” Jenny suddenly paused her frantic back-and-forth walking, as she fixed her disapproving gaze on the other girl.

“Gee, what’s it look like, mother Mary? Of course, I’m smoking. You’re wrecking my head here, I need a wee break to ease up.”

“But what about Artem? Where can he be? We need to find him, right now!” Jenny shouted, eyes almost scarily wide. This did nothing to impress Michelle, however. She had to deal with Erin’s antics every day: this was a piece of piss compared to her friend’s hysterics.

“Aye: best of luck with that. He’s your Soviet, so it’s not actually my problem. At first, I felt like bagging him, but now I sorta lost interest. A bit of a chase can be hot, but not if it lasts for like…three days, so see ye,” she then casually announced, before languidly pushing herself up from her chair and moving over to the door.

“No, you can’t leave, you have to help me find him,” the other girl demanded desperately as she went after her and grabbed onto her arm.

“ _ I _ don’t have to do fuck-all, sunshine, psyche,” Michelle responded dryly, shaking her off, before blowing some smoke in the stunned host’s direction for good measure. The look of horror that appeared on Jenny’s face immediately afterward was priceless. It almost made the foulmouthed teen wish that she’d brought her disposable camera with her. She’d always gotten a buzz from pissing off that stuck-up little twat.

Once outside, she kept walking. She was just about to turn a corner when she suddenly heard soft moans emanating from one of the rooms. A room which she knew for a fact had not been occupied, when she and Jenny checked it not too long ago.

Upon hearing the enthusiastic noises, she smirked and briefly stood outside to listen for more. Well, someone was getting down and dirty, at least. She shook her head and was just about to resume her pace, when she suddenly tripped on an edge of the red carpet, sticking up from between two floorboards. This directly resulted in her banging her head against the slightly ajar door and crashing down right into the middle of said room.

“Aah fuck, fucking Jenny Joyce and her good-for-nothing carpet. Why can’t she just have bare flooring like a normal pers…hold on, Clare, Clare is that you?” she then asked, slowly lifting up her head and rubbing at the back of it, as the silhouette in front of her gradually got clearer.


	2. Chapter 2

“Sweet sufferin’ Jesus, Michelle: you nearly gave me a heart attack! How about a knock first, eh?” sounded the familiar, perpetually high-strung voice from somewhere above Michelle’s now bruised body.

“Yeah, cause I always just like to trip meself and fall in unannounced. You know: that’s just what I do, Clare. Why don’t you make yourself useful for a change and help me up, instead of having a go at me?”

“Ah, much better…so, were you the one going “Hmm” when I was out there?” the curly-haired girl inquired curiously, once she’d gotten back to her feet with the aid of her friend.

“You were listening?” Clare asked anxiously, her voice reaching that annoying pitch that the half-baked version of Michelle hated especially.

“Well, I didn’t know it was you, did I now, brainiac? Now, where are you hiding your fella? He must be around here somewhere. You know: I think congratulations might be in order, Clare. Out of all us girls, I thought you’d surely be the last one to get a little action in, but it seems you proved me wrong. You’re well cool now: cracker stuff.”

“Michelle, I…”

“Now, where has he gone? Is it one of the Ukrainians? Because that would be kicking,” an excited Michelle kept her flow of words coming, seemingly unaware of the clear discomfort Clare was now displaying, as she nervously fiddled with her fingers.

“Michelle, it was not a…”

“Not a Ukrainian? Awk, it’s all good, Clare. We all have to start out somewhere: my first kiss was creepy Collin, ye know…not proud of that.”

“Michelle, I was kissing a girl!” Clare suddenly blurted out, effectively stunning the other girl into silence.

“You can come out now, Fiona,” she subsequently said, tapping the large closet door to her left. This prompted a skinny girl with chestnut brown hair to slowly reveal herself to the now wide-open eyes of a shocked Michelle.

The curly-haired girl stood, trying to regain her bearings for a few moments, as she attempted to understand what in the hell her friend had just told her.

“Sweet Moses, Clare. You were getting off with a girl?”

“We were only kissing, not…getting off,” a blushing Clare explained, staring at the ground in a mortified fashion. She’d hoped she could have done this at a more suitable time, but seeing as her friend had sort of caught her already, she guessed now would be as good a moment as any.

“It’s all good, Clare,” Fiona reassured her, as she moved closer and gave her hand an encouraging squeeze.“Right…a bit more context please?” Michelle asked, eyes darting quickly between the two of them.

“I…” the blonde girl began, only to abruptly close her mouth again, unsure of how to go about this further.

“Are you like…a wee dyke now…cause I wouldn’t be bothered by that. I’m with the times, ye know. Do you know what would’ve been ten times worse? If it had been James hiding in there,” her friend finally did her utmost to reassure her, with a nod of her head. While she herself hadn’t quite gotten over the news, she could tell that Clare needed her more than the other way around. Between going on quests with Jenny Joyce and having Clare confess to dipping her toes in the lady-pond, this had honestly been quite a night. She felt like she could do with another drink.

“Why thank you, Michelle. And yes: I guess I am a wee…dyke, though I’d much prefer different terminology. Fiona is sort of well, sort of kinda like my girlfriend,” Clare admitted shyly, as she held hands with the aforementioned girl who was smiling in bliss.

“So I am, nice to meet you, by the way. I heard a lot about ye,” Fiona joined in the conversation.

“Hah, only the bad I hope? So, question: can you two snog in front of Jenny Joyce, like? I’d love to see the look on her face,” Michelle suggested gleefully while pointing each of her index fingers at the pair of them in turn.

“Really, Michelle: people like Fiona and me don’t exist for the entertainment of others. We’re in love and there’s no reason why that love shouldn’t be as legitimate as the love of any hetero couple.”

“Aye, whatever butters your scone, Clare: fannies, pricks. It’s all the same really,” Michelle conceded before her friend would get the chance to go into one of her lecture-modes again.

“You know: I really appreciate this, Michelle. You’re the first person I’ve told this to. I know it’s not going to be easy being open about this, but I’m glad I have your blessing, at least,” Clare smiled gratefully, right before proceeding to affectionately peck her girlfriend on the lips.

“What is happening here?” sounded a sudden indignant voice from the doorway.

“Uck, speak of the devil. Catch yourself on, Jenny. It’s not contagious or anything.”

“Two girls…together? You are aware that this goes right against the values of our school?” Jenny Joyce gave a biting protest with her arms crossed, glaring at the girls who’d chastely grazed lips for a mere second. Her usually chipper mask had finally slipped to reveal a psycho scowl unlike any other.

“We’re not even _in _school, you dicko,” Michelle defended her friend with a roll of her eyes.

“You know: I think it would be for the better if both of you left. It’s nothing against youse personally, but I’m afraid I cannot approve of this behaviour,” the prefect continued in the most serious tone of voice, after having taken on a more neutral facial expression, which still did little to hide her bigotry.

“I understand. I’ll go…I’ll go,” Clare almost instantly brought out in defeat, only just managing to hold in her tears, as she pushed past Jenny and out of the room. Fiona proved to be more of a challenge, however, leaving the room with a loud: “Fuck you, ye uptight bitch!” causing Jenny to flinch and briefly look hurt.

Michelle smirked impishly in response: that Fiona was dead-on, she had a feeling she was going to like her.

After the newly-formed couple had left her house, Jenny regained her composure and smiled in satisfaction, her mission apparently accomplished.

* * *

“_You_ are an A-class dick-bag, you know that?” Michelle was raging, chasing down a smug Jenny in one of the never-ending corridors of her spoiled rich twat-shack. She’d not taken to the way the other girl had harped on her friend. While she herself was no angel, this was just taking things too far. Clare hadn’t done anything that warranted the massive douche-canoe reaction she’d received.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“I did what I_ had_ to do, it’s one of my main duties as prefect,” Jenny explained, while placing a martyr-like hand to her heart, her tone giving away how she believed she’d acted in the most beneficial way for everyone involved.

“Prefect, my arse. Why are you completely off your rocker? Again: we are not_ in_ your stuffy school where you seem to be hanging ‘round 24/7, and even if we were, that would_ still_ be a shite way to act. There’s something called being a decent human being, Jenny: you ought to look it up in a dictionary. I’m sure you have tons of those laying about, going by the size of your bake.”

Jenny appeared to remain unfazed by the accusations, as she continued walking, with the other girl still trailing close behind her.

“Nobody can even stand the sight of you, they’re only here for the free drinks and snacks!” Michelle amped up her rant, quickly catching up with the goody-two-shoes as she walked into one of the dozen rooms littered across the house.

The latter girl appeared genuinely affected by the harsh words for a few moments, as she wandered around aimlessly, seemingly having forgotten why she’d even stepped into her own bedroom.

“Hah, hit a nerve there, did I? Serves ye right,” Michelle retorted, closing the door behind her so she could really give the know-it-all a lesson she wouldn’t soon forget. She wasn't done with this one yet.

“See, I understand you’re a bit upset about your friend leaving, but…I’m only trying to help her. She’ll realize the error of her ways soon and repent. Clare is a good person at heart,” Jenny subsequently spoke cheerfully with a nod of her head and an almost sickening grin, which made the other girl want to lamp her in the face. What freaked her out, even more, was the party hostess's ability to flip moods, seemingly on a whim.

“Sweet sufferin’ Jesus, you really do fancy yourself a right reincarnation of mother Mary, don’t you? What’s it to you if they snog a bit? It’s not like they were rubbing fannies and shouting about how they were so lez it hurt or anything.”

It were these words that seemed to cause the head-girl physical discomfort as she suddenly stiffened and pulled a face as if she’d just smelt spoilt milk.

“You have a problem with that, do ye, Jenny? You have a problem with the things lezzers get up to behind closed doors?” Michelle queried, now gloating about having made the girl opposite her so uneasy. It was about time she got off her high horse and stopped with the fake leprechaun-happy demeanour. Where Orla constantly seemed high on shrooms, Jenny seemed off her socks on Prozac.

Then, she suddenly grinned as she thought of something even better to embarrass the very girl who had caused her friend such great pain. It was gonna be a bit of a gamble, but she just had to take her chance.

“Or maybe you like it a wee bit too much, is that it? Fancy that: the prefect of an all-girls Catholic school not getting enough of baps. You ought to use it as a headline for your school magazine…maybe get someone to read it for once, instead of using it to wipe their arses,” the crass teenager pressed with a triumphant smirk, slowly backing the person that had irked her all throughout the year up into a corner.

“I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but…I believe you ought to go home now. You have clearly consumed more than the recommended dosage of my home-made punch,” was the fake-polite response a threatened Jenny mustered up.

“Your punch? What a joke. Your punch tastes like watered-down piss. I brought my own poison,” Michelle continued challenging the other girl, now producing a flask of vodka and taking a large sip.

“Want a bit of this? It’ll flush that stick right out of your hole.”

“That’s very generous of you, but I don’t really…drink, you see,” Jenny scrunched up her face, desperately looking for a way out.

“And why’s that? Are you scared you’re going to do something daring to break out of your fucking borefest of an existence for once?” the curly-haired girl continued the game of chicken, getting right into her face, the stale waft of alcohol coming out quicker and quicker as she got more on board with the idea of causing the ultimate humiliation for Jenny. It would, of course, involve lowering her own standards quite a bit, but it would have to make do to get to the desired result.

“I don’t have to stand here and listen to this. It’s not fair,” the party hostess finally bit back assertively, pushing at Michelle’s shoulders and power-walking to the door, causing said girl to chuckle.

“Oi, Jenny.”

“What is it no…mmh,” her words were abruptly interrupted, green eyes widening like saucers as she was spun around and a pair of lips claimed her own aggressively.

* * *

Michelle smiled in her drunken delirium: she had Jenny good now. This wee show just needed to go on for a few seconds longer, then she could shove her away and laugh in her face for having taken part in a lezzie-kiss. Things didn’t exactly go to plan however, as she gradually discovered that she was actually getting quite into this whole kissing for jokes-business. The very same lips that were a massive pain-in-the-neck when used for telling everyone off, surprisingly felt pretty class when pressed up against her own.

The real kicker was that Jenny wasn’t even really_ doing_ _anything_ with them. The girl still stood stunned: one of her hands pressed weakly against her tormentor’s shoulder. This all abruptly changed when Michelle nipped at her lip on a whim and faintly became aware of the faintest whimper…a whimper that was decidedly not her own and that got her all fired-up. Jenny was enjoying this just as much as she was and this became even more evident, when her hand went from pushing away to hesitantly grasping closer. Michelle responded enthusiastically, biting the other girl’s lip and roughly shoving her back against the wall. Now it was her time to voice her pleasure, as their tongues met for the very first time, her own moan immediately getting answered by a soft sigh.

This wasn’t possible…this had to be some sort of strange fever-dream. Not a chance in hell that kissing this insufferable cow could feel this right. Yet here they still were: snogging like their lives depended on it. Michelle secretly wondered if maybe she would still be getting some below the belt-action tonight, after all.

As soon as that thought popped into her head, cognitive dissonance kicked in as she hurriedly pushed herself off of Jenny. The girls now stood facing each other breathing heavily, Michelle still not fully being able to comprehend how Jenny had all of a sudden turned into someone she wanted to ride very much. Both of their expressions revealed an odd mix of astonishment and arousal, as they slowly sized the other one up and down.

“I…should leave,” Jenny finally broke the tense silence, before grabbing onto the handle of her own bedroom door and stepping out, leaving Michelle to touch her lips and further contemplate what in the actual shite had just transpired here.


	3. Chapter 3

“Ach, where in the fuck is it?” Michelle cursed to herself out loud. She’d spend the past hour looking all over for her earring and she still hadn’t found it, even after turning over the entire house three times. Finally, she had come to the startling conclusion that she must’ve lost it at the party last night, which only added to her irritation.

After Jenny had left her on her own to deal with the aftermath of this right mess in  _ her  _ bedroom, the rest of the night had sort of gone by in a muddle. She’d hardly breathed a word to any of her friends, as she’d promptly made her way out of the house, to seek out the comfort of her bed. 

Erin being Erin, had even had the audacity to ring Michelle from that  _ very  _ bed at the crack of dawn, specifically to ask about her strange behaviour from the night before. She’d written off her friend’s concerns, however, not feeling like discussing the Jenny-situation over the phone. And she was definitely not planning on bringing it up face-to-face either. She was still scundered about the whole thing, especially since having reached a more sober state of mind.

It wasn’t so much the fact that she was alarmed over having enjoyed a snog with a girl. She’d been sort of surprised about that at first since she’d only ever cast her eye on boys in the past but it didn’t bother her as a whole, once she had had more time to mull it over. No, the thing that made her feel like wanting to boke even now, was that she had full-on laid an open-mouth smacker on _Jenny _of all people. Something that frustrated her further was the simple truth of her not being able to fault the other girl for this predicament in any way. She herself had been the one to really move in on Jenny, going as far as bringing tongues into it...sweet Jesus: Jenny’s tongue had been in her mouth.

She felt queasy again as she hurriedly made her way to the bathroom for the second time that morning. She blocked out the confusing thoughts telling her it had all felt fantastic, as she furiously scrubbed her toothbrush over her tongue, in order to erase whatever trace was left of the disconcerting encounter.

“Michelle, can you be quick, please? I really need to use the toilet,” came the annoying-as-ever voice of her cousin from the other side of the bathroom door.

“Piss off, James, this is my house,” Michelle frowned as she proceeded to wash her hands and huffily shake them dry, her brain continuing its disturbingly thorough focus on the events from the night before. She would have loved to use being lit as an excuse, but really: she still knew what she was doing. She generally handled alcohol pretty well due to all the practice she got over the weekends, after all.

“Michelle, honestly,” an impatient James whined.

“You want in?! Well, get in and get out of my face!” the curly-haired girl lost her temper as she pulled open the door, only to find her cousin staring at her in the most flabbergasted way.

“Are you...alright?”

“Aye, I’m grand, can’t you tell? Why are you asking me stupid questions?”

“Look, I know you don’t like me very much and you’re always insulting me regardless, but you don’t usually _ ...shout _ like that. Michelle, are you feeling okay?” 

For a minute, Michelle actually felt herself going a little soft: she could tell James was genuinely worried about her well-being. Adding to that the fact that he just took whatever nasty words she flung at him without resorting to any form of retaliation, she had to admit that he was actually a pretty sound person.

There was a brief pause in the conversation before she abruptly decided to swipe her sentimental change of heart under the rug. She had too many contradicting thoughts going on in her head right now. She wasn’t going to add being nice to James to the mix of out-of-character behaviours.

“I told ye: I’m dead-on, now go piss and leave me alone. I’ll be missing the bus at this rate, you fuckhead,” she retorted evasively, quickly shoving him out of the way to go and get ready for school.

* * *

“All I’m asking is: what’s your problem? Seriously, Michelle: what is going on with you?” Erin wouldn’t lay off the repetitive questioning, as they stood beside one another in the hall. Out of all her friends, the Quinn-girl had proved to be the most persistent, immediately latching onto the fact that Michelle was about ready for the hills. She’d interrogated her silly all the way from the bus stop to school. It was even worse now that Clare and James were chatting amongst themselves, making for zero distractions. Orla had stayed behind: ill from all the chocolate she had consumed, quite predictably so.

“I keep telling ye: nothing,” the brunette got out, almost too fast, not even looking at her friend. How could she, when her eyes were too preoccupied with darting around nervously in search of her inaptly-chosen kissing partner? She hadn’t spotted her so far, much to her relief.

“Orla tells me you went off with Jenny Joyce: what were you doing hangin’ round her?”

Michelle tried her best to keep it together, but her body language gave away more than she would’ve cared for. She’d only just succeeded in warding off more memories of kissing that slabber...which had been disgusting and not at all physically stimulating or anything and now here Erin was: dragging her into the conversation.

“I thought she’d be useful in tracking down Artem...didn’t catch a glimpse of him though: bummer. I wouldn’t have minded him fiddling with my bits...I’m talking about fingering, in case you were wondering,” she made a brave attempt to get her blonde friend off the trail. 

“Honestly, Michelle: do you ever think of anything else?”

“What else is there?” the curly-haired girl responded, hoping she was faking her standard lecherous smile well enough to fool her friend.

Just then, her armor of nonchalance was abruptly shattered as she finally became confronted with the sight of Jenny. Worse still: the girl seemed to be walking right in her direction, with a very odd expression on her face...she appeared ill at ease, to say the least. On a whim, Michelle quickly turned around, hoping that would deter her from approaching. Her action didn’t quite have the desired effect however, as in the very next minute she felt a light, yet invasive touch on her shoulder.

“What?” she spoke impatiently, as she spun back around, hurriedly shaking off the offending hand, hereby causing Jenny to frown and take a few steps back.

“Can I speak to you for a wee moment?” the prefect asked, pursing her lips in a pondering fashion, after having regained some courage. Her sickeningly positive attitude was gone, replaced by a much more demure way of doing things.

“No, why? Go away,” Michelle agitatedly rushed to dismiss her, very much wanting to keep up the illusion of her customary disdain for the girl.

“I won’t take up too much of your time,” Jenny attempted carefully, before slowly leaning in closer and whispering: “I think you’ll find it’s quite important.”

“How about not taking up any of my time and buzzing off? I don’t like ye, mind?” the crass teen blew her off, as she herself took her turn to step away. She didn’t want the other girl in her personal space again, lest more mad stuff was to happen.

“I see...I’ll pop off then, see all youse in class?” Michelle seemed to detect a smidgen of defeat painted across the prefect’s features. It went as quickly as it came, though, replaced by her familiar enthusiastic spirit as she directed her attention to the rest of the gang with a cheerful lilt to her voice and a peppy raise of her fist.

“Right,” Erin responded dryly, paying her little notice. James simply nodded awkwardly, still not knowing what to make of Jenny Joyce, while Clare tensely kept herself at the back.

As Jenny disappeared out of view, Michelle gave the petite blonde a slight smile, as she was reminded of the fact that more than one person was affected by the craziness that was yesterday evening. The girl in question made note of the kind gesture with a nod, pleasantly surprised by the genuine display of care.

“What was all that about then?” Erin instantly fired up the quizzing again, effectively causing her brunette friend to heave a deep sigh before regaining her composure.

“I dunno, she’s mental. Just be glad she’s out of our hair. Now, let’s go or we’ll be late.”

“Since when are you so punctual?”

“Since when are you Marple? Just quit poking your nose into everything for once, will ye?” Michelle snapped, huffily slinging her school-bag over one shoulder and marching off, leaving her friends behind in a state of utter befuddlement.

* * *

Michelle stared down at her watch...only five minutes left to this boring lesson and then the torture would end. The past few hours had been...otherworldly to say the least. Jenny, for one, was doing a pretty stellar job of freaking her out: the girl kept looking straight at her over her shoulder, from the front of the class. At first Michelle thought she’d only been imagining it, but sure enough: every time she dared to shift her gaze from her textbook, she was at it again: ogling her like she had food on her face or something. It didn’t take a genius to spot that the overachiever was clearly not being her usual self, failing to pay attention and answer questions she usually had no trouble formulating responses to.

All this didn’t help to reduce Michelle’s stress levels any: Erin, who was currently seated right next her, wasn’t thick and if Jenny didn’t stop her frequent gawking and cocking up basic facts soon, she had no doubt that the blonde would be perfectly capable to make some sort of a connection there.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the old school bell chimed, practically throwing over her desk in her rush to get away from it all.

“Michelle...Oi, Michelle, slow your roll!”

“Fuck,” the bold teen whispered to herself. Of course Erin wouldn’t just leave her on her own.

“Okay, I’ve had about enough of this. What’s the craic with you and Jenny Joyce? She kept...staring...during English she even forgot to brag about her love for Samuel Beckett and his unique narrative. Michelle...you didn’t beat her up or anything yesterday, did you”?

“Catch yourself on, Erin. You of all people should know that I wouldn’t do that.”

“Well, you sure talk about beating everyone up a ton, soo...” Erin pointed out matter-of-factly, with a nervous little laugh.

“Aye, exactly: talk, you’d be lucky to find me going through with only half the stuff I say. Anywho, concerning Jenny: we kind of got into a wee bit of a mishap yesterday, but it’s nothing. I’ll sort it out myself.”

“What sort of a mishap?”

“Well just, ye know: a mishap. Look, Erin: could you just...let it rest, like? It’s not all that important,” Michelle attempted to terminate any deeper prying into her private business, as she began strutting through the hallways faster and faster.

“Michelle, Michelle, wait!”

At the sound of Clare’s voice, the curly-haired girl curiously moved to face her friend, who had now come to a halt right behind her.

“I think we need to have a talk,” the blonde urged, clearly on edge, her breathing still erratic from having raced to catch up with them. She then turned her head this way and that, acting like Erin wasn’t even there, as she quietly added: “In private.”

“Right, come on then,” Michelle begrudgingly agreed, ushering her friend to follow her with a motion of her hand.

“I object to this arrangement. You two come back here, you come back here right now!” Erin’s flair for the theatrical came to a head again, as she shouted at them without performing any kind of a real effort to actually try and stop them.

* * *

“It wasn’t because of me, was it? Please tell me it wasn’t because of me,” a now slightly off-her-rocker Clare asked, once they had safely made it into the deserted girl’s bathroom, out of hearing distance.

“What...what in the fuck are you on about?”

“That you...you know beat up Jenny?”

“Ach, another one: why do all of ye keep thinking I beat up Jenny? I don’t actually give enough of a shit about her to do that, to be honest,” Michelle defended herself, a twisting sensation rippling through her stomach, as she remembered once again what she  _ did  _ end up doing.

“Besides: did you see any sort of a bruise on her? Yeah, didn’t think so...I still feel like she shouldn’t have chased you away for sucking face with a girl though and I did lay it on her a wee bit for that if it helps. That’s why she’s being all funny, you know: because I told her off.”

“Oh well, I...thank you, Michelle and I have to say I really appreciate you not telling James or Erin about...”

“Of course.”

“I’m happy that you didn’t resort to violence. For a moment there, I was very worried you had done something profoundly stupid. I mean: the way Jenny was carrying on in class...I noticed she didn’t put up her hand to answer once and Erin said she kept seeing her turn to look at you. Then I thought back to how she was with you this morning…Anywho, now I understand, well sort of I suppose. I apologize, Michelle: for getting the wrong end of the stick.”

“Awk, don’t mention it,” the other girl had no qualms about forgiving her friend, even if she did get a bit tired of Clare’s tendency to endlessly keep stringing words together when she could just as easily get to the point in half of the time.

“Shall we go back out to Erin? Everything’s sorted now, isn’t it?” the blonde asked, prompting her friend to nod.

Clare had already gone outside and Michelle was just about to follow her when the door suddenly opened, to reveal none other than Jenny Joyce herself.

* * *

Michelle did her very best to make an annoyed face, but it just didn’t come across that well, as she mostly felt very uncomfortable and almost apprehensive to be in the other girl’s presence once more.

“Why didn’t you want to talk to me then?” Jenny eventually inquired genuinely curious, yet equally on edge. She herself was careful to stay far enough away, now that they were alone again.

“Why should I want to talk to  _ you _ ? You were being a nasty cow to my mate, when she’d done nothing wrong,” Michelle stood up for herself, feeling some of the previous anger she’d harbored bubbling up to the surface once more. Kiss or no kiss, she still hadn’t forgotten about the stinking way Clare had been treated.

“It was not my intention to be nasty to her at all,” Jenny explained sincerely, now folding her hands in front of her as she took on a more casual stance.

“Well, you still came off that way. You’re such a mouth: always preachin’ about being Disney princess-kind to every fucker in your vicinity, then you go and treat a decent person the likes of Clare like filth. Shows what a hypocrite you are..don’t think big M. would be too proud of that.”

“Big M.?”

“You know: her with wee baby Jesus, mother Mary: your big icon.”

“Oh...Well, I’m sure I have said this before, but...I felt like I did right for Clare. Our belief doesn’t allow for...”

“Uck, our belief...you sure were thinking hard about that with your tongue in my mouth, weren’t you?” Michelle asked, confronting the other girl from a rather close angle, taking a bit of a risk as she wasn’t filled with liquid courage this time around. Luckily for her, Jenny was currently looking down at the floor and not right at her.

“That was... _ you  _ kissed me,” the latter girl then retorted shakily, clearly irritated about having been called out as she now met the other girl’s gaze.

“Aye, don’t know what I was thinkin’ there. You could have pushed me away, though: I would have stopped...but you didn’t. You fucking liked it: you were making noises and everything. Heck, I bet you would’ve even let me have a little feel if I hadn’t come to my senses in time. And you kept gawking at me in class: got a good eyeful, did ye?”

“Right, I’ve heard enough...and you can forget about getting _ this _ back,” An upset Jenny stated vindictively, as she suddenly produced a single hoop earring from out of the pocket of her blazer.

“Oi, my earring...Where did you get that? Give it back.”

“I found it on my bedroom floor and I recognized it as yours straight away: it’s quite striking and bold...not my style at all. Anywho, I think I might just hold onto this for a wee bit longer,” the head-girl proclaimed snootily, repocketing the piece of jewellery, before turning around to leave.

“Oh, no you won’t: you’re gonna give it back right this instant,” Michelle protested as she harshly spun her back around by the arm and began fumbling with the pocket, not caring one bit if she ripped it.

“No, get off,” the other girl attempted to block off the attack, as she, in turn, started pulling at the pocket, to get it out of unwanted hands.

“Look, I don’t have time for your bollocks, just give me it and...fuck...off,” Michelle got out reasonably calmly for the way she was carrying on, as she now full-on grabbed a hold of Jenny to keep her from fighting back.

“No, let me...let me go,” the head-girl struggled to get away, feeling herself becoming more panicked as she realized that the other girl was clearly the stronger party.

“I’ll let you go when you give me back my earring, not a minute sooner, ye thieving bitch.”

“No..no, stop, aah!” Jenny shrieked as she lost her balance, ultimately causing them both to topple over.

“Hah, got you,” Michelle panted in triumph, as the time had finally come to retrieve what was rightfully hers. Yet...the longer she looked down at the other girl, the more her initial goal faded out of existence. Acknowledging, for the first time ever, that even with a flushed face and her green headband all twisted out of place Jenny still looked well fit, Michelle yet again found herself all shades of worked up. Her arousal only mounted, when in the next few seconds the other girl unexpectedly began to let out soft moans.

As Michelle slowly regained her wits about her, she came to the delayed realization that they were actually cries of pain, as Jenny was now holding her hand pressed tightly against the back of her head. 

“Sweet Jesus, are you alright? Here, let me help you up,” she swiftly got her mind out of the gutter, her hormones allowing her guilty conscience to take the upper-hand, as she didn’t hesitate to gently pull her former enemy to her feet.

“Hey, I’m sorry, yeah? You’re not bleeding or anything, are ye? Here,” she then asked in sincere concern, before awkwardly placing her own hand where Jenny’s had been not too long ago.

Jenny’s answer didn’t come in the shape of many words, however, as in the next minute, she slowly leaned forward to capture Michelle’s lips in a tentative, yet tender kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as Jenny’s lips brushed up against her own, Michelle couldn’t help but kiss back, acting on pure impulse as she possessively drew the other girl closer. Encouraged by the favorable response, Jenny lightly moved her hands over to the taller girl’s waist. Despite not usually preferring the soft and sweet approach when it came to more physical affairs, Michelle surprisingly didn’t mind it this time around, the sensation indescribable as Jenny’s lips glided along her own ever so gently. While she could tell the other girl wasn’t very experienced, she still did a better job of it than over half the blokes Michelle had snogged before. 

If the logical side of her mind would’ve had its say, she would’ve been able to curse herself out for letting this happen, but that logical side had gone off on a holiday, the minute Jenny had started working her kissing-hocus-pocus on her again. 

For a while, Michelle was fine with letting the other girl dictate the rhythm, as she continued to delicately explore every inch of her mouth with the utmost care. Eventually, though, she found herself getting increasingly frustrated, not only with the lagging pace but with the unsettling hint of...intimacy that seemed to lace this whole set-up. This wouldn’t do: it was way too chaste and soppy. She needed more…more of Jenny. It was this realization that drove her to forcefully bite down on the other girl’s bottom lip, while she vigorously began fidgeting with her blazer, not giving a toss about getting to the earring this time around.

Unlike before, however, the shorter girl didn’t appear to be up for more intense making-out as she harshly pushed Michelle away, looking like a deer caught in the headlights as she brought a hand up over her mouth and slowly began walking backwards. This course of action simultaneously confused and irked Michelle. Jenny had started this, so why was she suddenly acting all ascared when she herself had only reacted in a way that was perfectly acceptable considering the circumstances?

With the ceased smooching-activity, clarity gradually seeped back into her own molten brain, bringing along with it some understanding for the other girl’s shock. She too felt at a loss of what to make of this, after all. Why did their fighting always end in sucking face? It was not even that long ago that she would’ve gladly punched Jenny, both for her glaring hypocrisy as well as for her refusal to take responsibility for her actions.

She was broken out of her reverie by a persistent squeaking. Hearing the unfamiliar noise, she quickly swiveled her head to see where it had come from, only to trace it almost instantly: in the far corner stood Jenny, anxiously struggling with the ridiculously easy handle of the bathroom door, as she repeatedly pumped it up and down in a frantic attempt at escape. Not wanting to dwell more on her previous handlings, as they were head-wrecking, to say the least, the curly-haired girl decided she might just as well make herself useful.

“No, I’m going, I’m going and you can’t stop me,” a visibly distressed Jenny threw back with a shake of her head, retracting her hand as if burned upon feeling a much warmer one suddenly resting atop of it.

“Jesus, calm yer knickers, why don’t ye? You are a decent snog, but not that special that I’d want to keep you here, so get over yourself. I was only trying to help...there, not that hard is it?” Michelle managed to simultaneously insult and comfort the girl, as she swung open the door, masking the hurt of rejection with one of her brash comebacks.

“You don’t have to like, thank me or anything...also, go and have that head of yours checked!” she shouted, suddenly worried again. She sure hoped Jenny didn’t have a concussion or something. She hadn’t meant to take advantage of an incapacitated person. 

She thought it over for a bit, before concluding that the other girl had to have known what she was doing: no one could plant one on like that and not mean it. The mere notion of Jenny’s affections being sincere threw her off infinitely more, than if it all had just been the result of some freak-head injury.

After having noted how she was still just standing there half-torn, she quickly strolled over to the sink and, in an attempt to recompose herself, splashed some much-needed cold water over her face. It was only after she’d felt some of her usual bravado returning to her, that another, more pressing issue came to light: Jenny still had her earring.

She let out a fed-up sigh, just as she caught sight of her crumpled uniform in the mirror. She then proceeded to half-heartedly wipe an unsteady hand over the folds, before finally leaving the musty bathroom.

* * *

“Look, James, I do truly understand how you must be feeling, but how could I have known? I’m not omniscient and Katya and her mates were no help with all their sneaking around and whisperin’.” 

Michelle was sat at the lunch-table, only partly aware of the ‘soothing’ background noises James and Erin provided, as they ping-ponged back and forth about the conflict they’d had at Jenny’s party. This was the second time they’d been droning on about it and it didn’t seem as if it was going to be resolved anytime soon.

She hadn’t really bothered to keep tabs on everything they were saying, what with her own troubles keeping her more than busy enough. She could take a pretty good guess, though, going by the way Erin had been clowning around the night before.

“Oh, so that made it perfectly okay for you to accuse her of being a prostitute ? Who..who would just assume that about a person and to then humiliate her in front of all those people? Yesterday could have been my first time, Erin and you thoroughly cocked it up, so thanks a lot.”

“First time...uck. You’re such a fanny,” Michelle commented casually while keeping her gaze fixed on her food. She was desperately trying to just keep up her day to day-routine of messing with her cousin, all while her insides felt like someone kept whirling a spoon around in there.

“Only saying it like it is, James, only saying it like it is,” she went on matter-of-factly, upon noticing her cousin closing his eyes in exasperation. 

Finding herself becoming utterly bored of her friends’ drama, she finally dared to take a gander in Jenny’s direction for the first time since she’d stepped out of the bathroom. As unnerved as she had been by the girl’s excessive staring in class earlier, Michelle almost wished she would do it again now. No such luck there, however, as she currently seemed to be engaged in conversation with Aisling.

Looking at the pair of them did nothing to improve her mood any. In fact, it only served to make her jealous of Jenny’s designated sidekick...wait...jealous? No, she wasn’t jealous: she was just a bit peeved over the fact that she apparently wasn’t impressive enough to keep Jenny’s full attention. Whenever she made out with a fella, he would be falling into a puddle of his own slobber over her not too long after, following her around and whatnot. Aye, that was it: her ego was damaged. Her disheartened state had nothing whatsoever to do with Jenny as a person. That would be well pathetic.

As she started to pay closer attention, she noted with some satisfaction that Aisling appeared to be the one doing most of the talking, all while her companion just kind of sat there looking a bit out of it. 

‘Good,’ Michelle thought, before finally tucking into her meal.

“...and while I will admit that I am a wee bit...broke about the scene I caused yesterday, I’d still like to point out that I was only looking out for you, James. That’s what being a good friend is all about, you know,” she slowly tuned back into her friends’ conversation. Erin had that tone in her voice again: the one that tricked others into feeling guilty when she’d in fact been the one to cause a bunch of havoc, that could have easily been avoided in the first place.

“I mean, honestly, even putting the whole tart-assumption aside: I wouldn’t have let you gone through with it, regardless. It wouldn't have been sensible anyway, what with the amount you had to drink.”

“I wasn’t drunk : I had one glass of punch, ONE,” James protested heatedly, not believing what he was hearing.

“Okay, you are seriously thick as pig shite if you think there was any good stuff in that punch. It was red lemonade, pure and simple,” Michelle interjected, trying to put a stop to the endless bickering. It was growing a bit stale.

Erin was just about to open her mouth again when Clare beat her to it:

“To be fair, Erin: I really feel like you shouldn’t be slagging off James like this. I mean: he is justified in his reaction when you think about it. He was really keen on this Katya-person and it is sort of your doing that they fell out. Also, I think it’s his choice if he wants to have sex or not and not really your place to interfere...no offense.”

“Thank you, Clare,” James smiled appreciatively at the petite blonde.

“While I can’t fault you for your sentiments, Clare, I’d still like to note that it was an honest mistake to make on my part...Michelle, you found the entire fellas-giving-Katya-money suspicious as well, right?”

“Give it a rest, Erin,” the brunette gave an indifferent response before her gaze reverted back to Jenny. 

Revisiting the kiss they’d shared in the bathroom, she still felt frustrated about having been stopped in her tracks. They could’ve gotten to the good bit, but of course, Jenny Joyce was way too much of a prude to even have a bit of a fumble. All of that pecking had almost been romantic for fuck’s sake . If there was anything Michelle didn’t want, it was being romantic with anyone as completely impossible as Jenny. She’d been bloody jammy to not have been caught with that melter. Her reputation would’ve surely gone to the dogs, if there would have been witnesses.

“So, Michelle, did you manage to talk things out with Jenny?” Clare suddenly asked out of the blue.

“Jenny? Who gives a flying fuck about Jenny? Will everyone stop running their big mouths about Jenny for one second?” Michelle flew off the handle, feeling personally attacked by her friend’s words.

“I’m sorry. I just...I saw her go into the bathroom and you stayed in there with her, so I just presumed….”

“Well, just...don't. And no: I didn’t talk things out with her. You know why? Because you can’t fucking talk to the bitch. She’s like Erin: always on her high horse and unable to admit to her own fuck-ups. And I don’t get why you are so hung up on her well-being, Clare or did you forget about the stuff she pulled on you yesterday?”

In her agitated state, a ripping Michelle caught on to her slip-up way too late, furrowing her brows as she watched Clare’s eyes go wide in a mad panic.

“What? What happened yesterday?” Erin rose to the occasion, her ire with Michelle’s little comparison disappearing, as she was more intrigued by what else had just been mentioned.

“Oh, well ehr…Clare was getting off with a bloke and then that stuck-up twatfwaffle didn’t like it, so she basically just kicked them out of her house. Then I gave her an earful. That was the big mishap I told you about, alright? So there: now you’re all filled in. I spilled the beans, I gave the game away. Now if you can all just go about your business and let me eat in peace, that would be kicking.”

There was a brief yet tense pause in the conversation, as Michelle passive-aggressively bit into her toast, while James looked at Clare sympathetically. The girl in question did her utmost to avoid eye-contact with everyone. Meanwhile, Erin still seemed to be processing the news, as she looked at Michelle, then at Clare, then at Michelle, before finally fixing her gaze on Clare again.

“Really, Clare? So, you just lied to my face? ‘I should be off, studying for the big exam on Monday.’ Here I was thinking you were my friend. I could have stuck up for you,” she finally brought out, hurt and betrayal lacing her tone, as she mocked Clare’s fib from the night before.

“Oh, right then: what was I supposed to have said? That I got removed from the party by the hostess? Do you have the slightest understanding of just how humiliating last night was for me, Erin?! No, no of course not, because all you ever care about is yourself!” Clare suddenly blew up at her oldest friend, before rising up from her seat, in an attempt to appear more imposing.

“Now hold on a minute, Clare, I didn’t m…”

“Save your excuses, Erin. I’ve heard enough out of you,” Clare swiftly interrupted her, before picking up her tray and going over to sit at one of the few empty tables that were left.

“I uhm, I’ll better...go and see if she’s alright,” James offered in concern before he too left their table.

“Well, that’s that then,” Erin spoke softly, appearing genuinely fazed by Clare’s outburst.

“She’ll come around, hi. She still has a point though,” Michelle good-naturedly attempted knocking some sense into her friend. Seeing how the blonde was only getting more down on herself, she reached over to gently nudge her shoulder.

“I got kicked out too, we could’ve bonded over it,” Erin finally chuckled, while wiping a lone tear from her face.

“It’s gonna be fine, ye know. James will fix this. He’s good at the sensitive yarning, what with him being a massive homosexual and all.”

“And I didn’t even get to ask her about her mystery fella,” the blonde subsequently sighed softly, before dropping her chin in both of her hands and proceeding to stare off into the distance

“Awk, he’s not important. First kisses are mostly wick anyway. It’s like riding a bike: the more you do it, the better you get. And then the next part is actually like riding a bike: when you push the fella down and get…”

“Ach, Michelle.”

“Don’t be so uptight, Erin. People ride each other: it’s a thing, get used to it.”

“You know, you’re always prattling on and on about sex, but have you ever actually been awestruck by a person, like? Gotten that funny feeling in your belly when you see them...the butterflies, loss of appetite, fluttery heartbeat when you're in their vicinity...,” Erin mused, her voice sounding more and more fanciful the longer she went on.

Suddenly recalling the incident in the bathroom with Jenny pinned beneath her looking all vulnerable, Michelle started to feel strangely put on the spot.

“Butterflies? What, like you and that git David Donnelly? I’m not into that load of balls, never was, never will be,” the curly-haired teen replied overly defensively before her line of sight automatically drifted back to Jenny, who still seemed to have an almost full tray of food. That first snog at the party had been grand though, maybe if she hadn’t copped out early, they could’ve...

“Oi...wait, stall the ball.. something seems off.”

“What?” Michelle replied distractedly, her pleasant thought bubble popped. She really had to force herself to focus on Erin. Jenny was just...more interesting to look at for some reason.

“Your wee tale about Clare: it doesn’t sound right. Surely she wasn’t the only one trying something on at that party...I mean: James even wanted to have sex, for christ’s sake.”

“Aye, thank you for reminding me, Erin. Boking up my lunch was exactly what I had in mind today.”

“Catch yourself on. I’m being serious: I want to know what happened, what really happened and you’re going to fess up or so help me god,” the blonde demanded, leaning forward.

“I already told ye all there was to it. If you’re so dead-keen on getting more info: go and ask that one over there. She’s the one that caused all of this, ye know, not me,” Michelle deflected blame for more than just the Clare-incident, while taking this opportunity to gesture and glare in Jenny’s direction. Much to her surprise, however, there was no longer any trace of her. 

“Where is...how did…for fuck’s sake,” she muttered to herself, only just able to contain herself as she’d been about to get up and look for her, like some mad lad.

“Honestly, Michelle: I’m getting desperate worried about you. You’ve not been yourself all day and it’s really throwing me off. I mean: look at the state of you.” 

“I uh...I need to go take a piss,” Michelle announced absentmindedly, only semi-aware of the actual meaning of the words coming out of her mouth, as she shoved her chair back, pushed herself up on her hands and promptly left the dining hall.


	5. Chapter 5

As a jittery Michelle scurried through the hallways, she once again tried to rearrange all the little threads dangling loosely all through the jumbled mess masquerading as her brain. It was like a steaming tea kettle about to boil over up there...uck tea, James always drank tea like the pansy Brit he was. ‘Earl grey with a lump of sugar’...she could practically hear the prick say it. Sometimes she seriously wondered if he wasn’t eighty-six instead of sixteen. What kind of teenager honestly got all hot over tea?

Wait...what was she doing thinking about James? She thoroughly disliked James. Then again, she’d thought she disliked Jenny Joyce, and yet she kept. fucking. smooching. her. all over the place. Why? What the shit was wrong with her lately? Why couldn’t she have just given her an earful earlier and gotten her earring back, so she would have been done with it? What was so special about Jenny anyway?

She quickly reassured herself that it was probably only a physical thing. Kissing the girl felt good, that was all there was to it. That first time, she'd been sexually frustrated due to her lack of action on what should have been an eventful night. After all, what were parties for if not for getting it on?  Honestly, if that Ukrainian dunce hadn't disappeared off to god knows where yesterday, she would have never taken things further with Jenny. Come to think of it, it was Artem's fault that she'd ended up spending time with the girl in the first place...stupid Kozak.

As for today...well her hormones were to blame yet again, as would be the case for any normal person her age. That’s why she’d grabbed onto Jenny earlier. It hadn’t actually meant anything: she was just looking for relief. She would’ve grabbed onto any Tom, Dick, and Harry: it hadn’t meant shite.

Michelle sighed, only too aware of the restlessness still plaguing her body. She really needed to fix that. If not, she'd be an utterly lost cause for the rest of the day.

Annoyingly enough, as she searched for ways to solve her little “problem”, she couldn't manage to block Jenny out of her head. She kept having the urge to find the girl and throw her up against the nearest available surface to finish what they had started. Then, maybe, she could leave this whole situation behind her and forget it ever happened...that wouldn't do though, she just couldn’t let herself fall into that trap again. The fact that she’d let it happen twice, was disturbing enough as it was.

Her spirits gradually brightened, as a brand new and much better idea suddenly dawned on her: there were still plenty of smoking Ukrainian fellas wandering about the school, who were probably nothing like that useless Artem. She could just have her pick out of one of them. A bloke would surely let her do whatever: guys were always up for it, anyway. 

With her plan fully conceived, Michelle excitedly went on her way, in search of fresh meat.  Much to her growing joy, she didn’t even have to go through a lot of trouble, as upon turning the corner, she spotted just the right target. This lad was tall, blonde, and hunky. In other words: he was the exact opposite of Jenny and just what she needed.

‘Bingo,’ the curly-haired girl thought to herself with a cheshire grin, before she started heading straight in the boy’s direction.

* * *

“Well, fuck me running,” Michelle whispered, supremely agitated. She was currently standing pressed against a door, while her ears had the additional pleasure of getting tortured by a very familiar voice.

She’d been this close to getting to her new object of fancy when out of nowhere, he’d gone into the fucking music room of all places. This so happened to be the exact same music room, where Jenny and her boot-licking sidekick had gathered, to rehearse one of their good-for-nothing songs that no one had asked for.

She rolled her eyes when she faintly picked up on Aisling complimenting Jenny’s singing. Was the girl deaf? Fair enough: Jenny was talented with her mouth, but not in the singing-department. Well, maybe with some coaching she could sound half-dece...aaand, there she went again: being nice to the girl, even in her own thoughts. Sweet Jesus: did someone knock her in the head without her noticing or something? Speaking of heads...she wondered how Jenny's head was faring. The girl really seemed to have been in genuine agony earlier going by all that yelping... 

Then again, her lips had done a bang-up job right after that and she appeared to be singing with her usual gusto at this moment, so maybe she was just fine. Michelle hoped she was anyway. 

Uck...this caring about Jenny business was really starting to grind her gears. It didn't add up: the girl had been a total dick to one of her best friends, for fuck's sake...not to mention all the times before where Jenny had just been a massive pain in the neck.

Michelle's irritation only snowballed further, when she’d been standing around in the hallway for what had to have been a good ten minutes and the Ukrainian still didn’t seem intent on showing himself again. Finally deciding she had waited long enough, the curly-haired teen made a rash decision.

* * *

Jenny's heartfelt, though slightly out of tune rendition of 'My Endless Love' was brusquely interrupted, as the door to the music room swung wide open.

“Excuse me, do you mind? We are trying to re...hearse,” the prefect's heated demand lost a lot of its power midway, voice cracking when she turned her head away from the piano and saw just who it had been so rudely cutting in on her performance.

“Actually, I do mind with the way you butcher songs. What are you: Sinead O’Connor’s deaf cousin? Take some singing lessons, will you, Jenny? Your parents are rolling in it: they can afford it,” Michelle had no time for the other girl’s protests. Having to look at Jenny’s face again only highlighted all of her grievances with the girl, causing her to lash out. She had simultaneously been confusing her and pissing her off for way too long already.

“Why are you even here? Aisling and I reserved this classroom this morning: you’re not allowed to enter. I’ll be sure to let Sister Michael know about this,” the head girl retorted viciously, upon having one of her most valued assets insulted.

“Aye, you go and do that then. I doubt she even gives a toss though.”

“Excuse me?” 

"Why can’t you just leave us be? You’re ruining our focus,” Aisling interjected calmly yet assertively, from behind the giant Steinway, right before she started scanning her sheet music for where exactly she’d lost her place.

“I said: I doubt she cares. Besides, he’s allowed in clearly, so why shouldn’t I be?” a contrarian Michelle went on, completely ignoring Jenny’s wee servant, as she wildly gestured to one of the catalysts for her having come here in the first place.  The Ukrainian boy was currently seated at one of the desks, watching the scene in front of him unfold in increasing bewilderment. 

“I’ll have you know that Vasily here is working on an original song, encompassing the struggles of victims of the Chernobyl disaster. He has also suggested that part of the earnings of this Sunday’s concert, go to the people affected. Seeing as he’s bringing awareness to an important cause, he has my full permission. You see: he had the decency to ask me about using this room first, unlike certain others.”

“That is the truth, I asked. Many thanks again, Jenny,” Vasily backed up Jenny's rebuttal with a little nod of his head and a grateful smile.

“Oh, it was no bother, if anything it was my pleasure to allow you to shed more light on a serious issue,” the girl in question spoke fondly, right before sending the boy a warm smile of her own.

“Well, Jenny, you sure seem sweet on this one. Better make sure he doesn’t run off like that last Ukrainian you babysat. That’s right, Vasily: this miserable dose right here has the magical ability to make all Ukrainians go poof,” Michelle raved on, her pre-existing frustration currently mixing with gut-twisting jealousy in a lethal cocktail. She did  _ not _ care for the way Jenny and the Kozak had just looked at each other at all. She honestly could do with a barf-bag after witnessing them exchange lovey-dovey glances. The remarkable part though, and the same part that had her so up in arms, was that she’d been far more upset by Jenny showing interest in  _ him _ , than the other way around.

“I had no part in Artem’s decision to wander off, so you can keep your unsubstantiated guesses to yourself!” an up-to-high doh Jenny defended herself, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Aye, you’d like that, wouldn’t ye? You wouldn’t want anyone to know what sort of a faker you really are,” the curly-haired girl taunted. The storm of foreign feelings kept overpowering her and clouding her better judgment, as she was far past caring about anything but self-preservation.

“There’s really no need for this,” Aisling mixed herself in the debate a second time, as she hurriedly got up from the piano bench to check on her friend.

“I agree, why do you say this? Jenny is nice,” Vasily too picked a side, before he joined both of them beside the piano.

“Awh, thank you,” a shaken-up Jenny expressed her gratitude with a weak smile...still one smile too many in Michelle’s humble opinion.

“So, you really do fancy him, don’t ye? I wouldn’t get my hopes up: you’re not exactly the type of girl fellas lust after, you know.”

“I...I don’t...I don’t fanc...” the prefect tried desperately, blinking in utter disbelief at the other girl’s words.

“Moreover, I happen to have my eye on him, so you'd better lay off, Snow White. Well, not that it’d be much of a contest anyways,” the latter girl faked confidence, unsure of how else to cope with the intensity of the unfamiliar coil currently taking possession of her stomach. She then flirtily grinned at Vasily, in what she hoped was a proper conveyance of her usual pizzazz.

Her mood drastically improved when she saw him walking towards her. Her plan had worked: she’d gotten him away fro...all to herself. From the corner of her eye, she momentarily spotted Jenny looking gutted: a fact which tugged at her heartstrings just a little too much for her liking.

“I already have girlfriend, but if I did not, I would not have romantic relations with you. You are horrible person,” Vasily coldly shot her down, his accent thick as he got right into her face.

“Right, right, whatever you say, suit yourself,” Michelle mumbled nonchalantly. She was proper irked by her utter indifference to having just been rejected by a very fine-looking lad. She felt relieved that he was taken, more than anything.

“Jenny, if this girl annoys you more, I’m there, yes?”

Jenny gave the tiniest nod, before slinking back and scratching at her face in clear discomfort.

“Good, I’m gone now. I work further on the song, but I don’t want to do that here anymore,” Vasily then announced, throwing Michelle one last cut-eyed look, before swiftly leaving the room, pencil and paper in hand.

* * *

“I think  _ you _ have done quite enough,” Aisling reprimanded Michelle suddenly, upon noticing her friend’s increasingly alarming behaviour. Jenny was just sort of standing there, not uttering a word.

“Well, sucks for you, because I’m not leaving, not until I get back what’s mine.” Michelle retorted somewhat childishly, right before marching straight over to Jenny and impatiently sticking out her palm.

“I want that earring, now.”

The keeper of said earring failed to react, however, prompting her friend to step in, as she pushed Michelle out of the way.

“Just leave her be. Jenny, Jenny, are you alright?” 

“Jenny, what’s the matter? Jenny...you’re frightening me.”

Aisling's ardent pleas finally seemed to kickstart a shift within Michelle, as she managed to move past her own tribulations, in order to fully take note of the state Jenny was in, for the first time since she’d begun mouthing off to her. Immense guilt began rising up, upon seeing just how out of it the girl appeared to be. Heck, she’d never known her to get like  _ this _ . Usually, she held her own quite well when people hurled abuse at her, and Jenny got a lot of shite thrown her way.

“Jenny...Jenny? Hey, I didn’t mean it as bad as all that, like. Come on, toughen up a bit, yeah? Jenny?” she took her own careful turn to reach the girl, as she frantically shook at her shoulder.

“This is your fault,” Aisling didn’t help things along any.

“Yeah, yeah, I know: I’m a dick, blah blah blah… Jenny, come on now,” Michelle ignored her with a dismissive wave of her hand, as she attempted in vain to make eye-contact with Jenny, who had begun to tremble like a leaf.

“Jenny, hey, hey: let me have it, I deserve as much. I’m right here, do your worst.”

“Why did you have to say those things to her? Also, I’m quite certain she was just being nice to Vasily to make him feel more welcome, not for the reason you think,” Aisling hissed, growing more concerned for her friend, as her breathing started to grow faster and faster.

“Right, well I told her I was sorry, didn’t I?”

“No, you didn’t! Just look at the state of her! I always think you and your friends can’t possibly do any worse to us, especially you, but here you are: proving me wrong again. You went too far this time!”

“Aisling, do me a favor: quit your gurning and...yeah, you know what? Just leave me alone with her for a bit, okay?”

“Why would I _ possibly  _ do that? So you can break her spirit even more? I have  _ never _ seen her like this! She’s shaking!” The bespectacled girl scoffed, not believing the other girl’s audacity.

“Just trust me on this one. I’ll get her back to her old self in no time. You just watch...well, no you shouldn’t watch, as I just asked you nicely to piss off, but anyway.”

“No, not a chance. I'm staying right here, I'm not abandoning her here like this. Jenny needs me,” an overwrought Aisling promptly rejected the suggestion, while rubbing soothing circles on the prefect’s back.

"Listen, no offence and I see your point, but I think that you panicking all over the place, isn't going to do Jenny much good right now. One person having a major cack attack is more than enough. I'm not trying to be a bitch or anything: I really do believe it's best for her if you step away. I'll come get you as soon as she's...well...fixed, I suppose."

“Aisling: you need to focus on your mate. Do you really want to just keep faffing about by shouting at me and going hysterical?” Michelle continued to earnestly plead her case, upon noticing the other girl still glaring at her. 

"If you hurt her any more, I swear I'll..."

“I won't, scouts honor. I just want to help her snap out of...whatever the fucking hell this is. I mean: this can't be right surely." the curly-haired girl promised, while gesturing to an almost catatonic Jenny, whose breathing still hadn’t returned to normal. 

“Jenny, I’m going to go now, but I’ll be right back if you need me, okay?” Aisling finally acquiesced, as she quietly reassured her friend. She subsequently frowned, when she still didn’t receive any sign that the girl had heard her.

“I’ll take care of it, it’s gonna be all fine and dandy,” Michelle stated confidently, attempting to hide her own rising panic behind her customary tough exterior.

Aisling glanced at her skeptically one final time, before she slowly and hesitantly walked over to the door and left the room, ultimately leaving the pair in the solitude of each other’s company once more.


	6. Chapter 6

“So, that’s that over with, we don’t need her now, do we, Jenny?” Michelle addressed the eerily silent girl, her tone in complete opposition to the turmoil she was going through on the inside. She felt in way over her head if she were to be totally honest with herself. How in the fuck was she going to solve this anyway?

Maybe sending Aisling away had been a big mistake on her part. It was not like she herself had such a positive effect on Jenny, especially in light of recent events. Still: she’d been the one to cause this mess, so she felt it her duty to sort things out. She just hoped that whatever she attempted would work out for the best in the end.

“Let me just erh...pull up a chair for ye," she said, going for the first logical thought that popped up in her brain, as she did just that, albeit in a manner much more forceful than she had originally intended. She winced upon hearing the chair noisily scrape across the floor. The sound wasn't unlike the screeching brakes on a car, upon being inevitably thrust into a crash.

Quite certain that this must have brought the other girl out of her stupor, Michelle turned towards her and smirked confidently, only to find her glee waning quickly: the expression on Jenny’s face hadn't changed in the slightest.

Michelle eyed her warily: the girl seemed to be on another planet entirely with her eyes spread wide open and her limbs unmoving. The only indication of her body still functioning, proved to be the fast-paced rising and falling of her chest.

"Okay, Jenny, work with me here and stop acting like you're on one. Go and sit down for starters," the curly-haired girl gingerly renewed her efforts, placing her hand on Jenny’s shoulder and pushing down roughly, mildly disturbed by the stiffness present in said shoulder.

"There, that's settled. Now...what is with you anyway?" she then asked rather bluntly, as she herself sunk down in the chair right beside her. 

Upon noticing how the other girl’s breathing picked back up at an alarming rate, she came to the delayed realization that it had probably not been the smartest or most ideal thing to have said, given the situation. Come to think of it, the way in which she'd conveyed the message hadn't been all that tactful either.

It was no wonder really: she usually didn’t fare too well in these circumstances. She was shit enough at emotional support as it was, without people having complete mental breakdowns on the spot. Heck, she’d wanted to shake an overly agitated Clare about for making a fuss once, and that had still been nothing compared to how Jenny was behaving at the moment. She’d been a handful at her party yesterday as well, but at least she’d still been yapping.

Perhaps she’d just have to chuck in the towel and go find one of the sisters...they might actually have some experience in dealing with this. Then again...she’d have to explain to them what had happened and she was hardly up for more detention. She hadn’t forgotten the last time, when that stuffy old sister had keeled over and died, and she and her friends were blamed for it.

A shaky exhale caused her to tumble down from her ever-increasing stack of unhelpful musings, as she focused back on the distressed girl seated right next to her. Jenny was sitting on the wooden chair rigidly, the shade of her skin as pale as a blank sheet of paper."Ach, Jenny," Michelle finally sighed, taking pity on the girl, as she instinctively reached out for her trembling hand, which was resting on the desk in a very stilted manner.

"Don't touch me, don't you touch  _ me!" _

After what seemed like a lifetime of silence, the very sound of Jenny’s panicked voice proved startling and Michelle found herself taken aback, as the other girl jerked her hand away and hastily retreated from her. The inability to speak momentarily spreading to her, as she could do little more than watch as Jenny earnestly began hugging herself.

"Now look here, Jenny, calm do…" 

"No, I don't want you here. Just go away, now!" the girl in question cried out in desperation before she turned to face away from Michelle, all the while still having her arms folded around her person.

"Hey, I apologize, alright? I was an eejit and I'm sorry. You don't have to go all psycho over it," the curly-haired girl did her best to show compassion, which wasn't easy since she herself was feeling quite defensive over being yelled at. She was torn between her own pride and an otherworldly sense of protectiveness over Jenny’s wellbeing

Her awkward mood didn’t get much of a breather, once it well and truly dawned on her, that said girl had reverted back to her mute status. It seemed that fixing this was going to be a real chore and Michelle wasn’t sure that she had the energy for it. With all the arguing that had gone down, her previous buzz had worn off completely.

“Jenny? Jenny, please don’t start that business all over again,” she sighed in exasperation.

“Look, You're not psycho. I shouldn’t have said that, nor some of that other stuff, for that matter. I just went off.”

"I only meant like half of it, you know. You could get a fella...if you wanted," the curly-haired girl urged after another stretch of painful silence, her words having taken on a soothing touch. The more time she spent in Jenny’s presence, the harder the impact of her not so wise actions seemed to hit her. She subsequently followed up her heartfelt statements by sliding her chair backward, so as if to finally allow Jenny a bit more space.

“ Also, you can keep the earring if you want. I won’t mind a bit, I have another pair just like ‘em,” she then said, gesturing to the tip of the glistening item of jewellery, peeking out from Jenny's pocket.

"I went a little overboard, I suppose. This whole mess is partly my fault anyway. I should have never snogged you in the first place,” Michelle bravely kept at it. Since the shorter girl clearly wasn’t planning on speaking anytime soon, she might as well do the honours. 

“Why did you do it?” Jenny’s words sounded soft, yet accusatory as they pierced the muggy air of the small classroom. She still wasn’t looking directly at her former kissing partner, but she was facing the front again at least.

“Did what? Kiss you?”

The prefect nodded curtly, swallowing.

“Well, I'm just gonna be honest: at first I did it to mess with ye because of that stunt you pulled on Clare, but then, well...it felt nice, so I was like: ‘fuck it.’ You only live once, so you might as well make the most out of it,” Michelle shrugged, acting tough to avoid facing any deeper meaning behind the continuation of the infamous kiss. 

“That...it was my first kiss,” the other girl ultimately admitted timidly after another long beat, while continuing to avoid eye-contact.

“Oh...right, I hear ye...so?”

“I mean, for what it’s worth: you were good, really: a class-act. I never would have guessed you'd not done it,” Michelle tried to save matters in her own way. after she’d gathered that a first kiss must’ve been a far bigger deal to Jenny than it had been to her. The solemn expression on her face conveyed more than a thousand words, after all. 

“You took that moment away from me,  _ you  _ stole my first kiss and now you tell me it was only meant as a wee bit of a farce?” the prefect suddenly proclaimed bitterly. 

“Well, yeah, what did you reckon, that I fancied you?” 

Those very words seemed to have an unprecedented effect on Jenny, as she finally turned to fully look at Michelle, her eyes shining defiantly.

“Hold on, I didn’t mean it like you’re mingin’ or anything. I just...I don’t get why you’re acting like this. It was fun and you were up for it. Heck, you were up for it twice, so what are you even complaining about?” 

“You had no right! You had no right to do that to me!” Jenny shouted, a deep ache settling itself into her features.

“Yeah? You had no right to tell Clare to piss off, yet you still went along with that, didn’t you? So, why don’t you drop the attitude for once and climb down from your throne, your highness?! That’s where the real world happens!”

“That was a different matter altogether!”

“No, it wasn’t! Are you thick? You upsetting Clare was the main reason why I kissed ye, not me having the hots for you, so get over your fucking god complex and move on for fuck's sake,” Michelle stated matter-of-factly, already over the fuss the other girl was making.

“You disgust me! Get out now!” Jenny demanded, revulsion dripping from her every word, while not letting up on her fierce glare.

“I’d be glad to, anything to get away from you,” the other girl acquiesced, practically throwing back her chair, as she quickly rose to her feet.

“Get out! Get out, get out, get out, get...out, get...” the prefect continued to repeat herself ad nauseam, her breathing growing increasingly more laboured, hereby successfully playing on the decent portion of her former rival's psyche.

Once it hit Michelle that something clearly wasn't right, she slowly turned on her heels. She subsequently frowned, once the severity of the situation really set in. 

“Fuck...Jenny, easy now.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Michelle rushed back to where the other girl was seated, swiftly kneeling down in front of her chair to check on her. Her worry won the tug of war from her need to come out on top, once she noticed just how much the shorter girl was struggling to breathe. If she didn't act now, this could turn out very nasty.

“Jenny, Jenny. Hey there, relax. You need to ease up.” 

“Jenny, steady on. Jenny...hey, listen to me: you need to breathe slower, yeah? Either that or you’re gonna have a fit,” the girl in question managed to grab a tight hold of Jenny’s shoulders, this having been no easy feat, seeing as Jenny was wriggling around violently to try and escape. 

“Don’t...touch me…don’t, get...away! Aisling! Aisling!”

“Hush now, what do you want her for? I can help you just fine. Just breathe with me, go on, slower...no, slower...slower, Jenny, fucking hell. That’s it...good, that’s good. There you go, nice and calm. That’s right. You’re starting to get the hang of it,” Michelle encouraged after a bout of frustration, grinning slightly, once the shorter girl’s breaths matched her own again. She had no idea how she’d turned into a mellowed-out hippie, but part of her was happy that she had skillfully defused a scary situation.

“Much better, right? Yeah, I thought so. Maybe next time don’t get all pissy with me, how about that?” she suggested, winking at the stunned girl.

Just as a confused Jenny was about to open her mouth, both girls were startled by the loud thud of the door opening and hitting the nearby wall.

“So, what seems to be the matter here, girls?”


	7. Chapter 7

Both Jenny and Michelle looked up, just in time to see Sister Michael confidently marching in, with a nervous Aisling in tow.

"Oh, it's all good, Sister. Jenny here was feeling a bit under the weather, but I think it’s all cleared up now. I helped her get back to normal, isn’t that right Jenny?" Michelle gave a toothy smile, while subtly nudging the other girl in the side.

"Fascinating...so, the both of you weren't just involved in a row for half the school to hear?"

“Ah, you see, Sister: that’s where you’ve got it backwards. We weren’t arguing. We just had a wee disagreement is all, but as you can tell: it’s all good now,” Michelle had a nonchalant go at defending herself, while awkwardly patting a rather feeble Jenny on the shoulder. She always seemed to forget just how thin the walls were at this old place. Meanwhile, her “partner in crime” was of little help, as she just sort of sat there.

"Do you take me for a simpleton, Michelle? Don’t even bother to answer that. You seem to have blissfully forgotten that my office is located right here in this very hallway. Yes, far too much noise...and during a time when you should both be in class, no less. My tinnitus sends it regards,” a sharp-tongued Sister Michael was quick to rebut her argument.

Michelle found herself all shades of perturbed when out of fucking nowhere Jenny leaped up and passionately began to plead her case.

“Please, Sister, I implore you not to suspend me, it was not my in…”

“Hush, Jenny, it’s quite alright. I’ll just take an extra pill. Anyhow, Aisling here tells me most of this tomfoolery wasn’t your doing, so it appears you might be in the clear. She claims that Michelle placed you under a lot of mental duress, is this true?” the headmistress asked, her indifferent tone gradually morphing into a more serious one, as she focused her gaze on Jenny.

“It  _ is _ true, I saw it with my own eyes,” Aisling immediately took it upon herself to back up her previous statements.

“Yes, yes, alright, I heard you the first time. I’m asking Jenny, not you.”

A heavy frown rested on Jenny’s face for a few fleeting seconds, before it drifted off to reveal a pleasant smile.

“I concur that I was poorly, Sister, yes. I can assure you, however, that I’m doing far better now. I’m heartily sorry for causing a scene.”

Hearing the words, Michelle's mouth dropped open slightly. A minute ago, she would have definitely believed that Jenny wouldn’t miss this opportunity to throw her under the bus,(and honestly, it would be well deserved in this case). The fact that she hadn’t, even going as far as implicating only herself, ignited a funny sensation in the pit of her stomach.

“I wouldn’t have taken you for the slow-witted type, Jenny, but I’ll be gracious and rephrase, seeing as you seem to be having such a hard time grasping the question: how much of a part did Miss Mallon here play in your state of distress?”

“I…”

The headmistress’s query seemed even more doomed to fail the second time around, with Jenny repeatedly opening and closing her mouth, the proper words seeming just out of reach.

“Jenny,” a perplexed Aisling urged.

“Sister, I fess up: it was my fault. You can do whatever you’d like to me, just as long as it’s not stinking detention again. I would like to keep my lipstick this time around, no offense. I’m telling ye: that stuff is not cheap. And I still have nightmares about James pissing in that bucket,” Michelle acquiesced valiantly, finding herself getting increasingly bothered by Jenny’s discomfort.“

Well then, wasn’t that easy...almost too easy. Thank you, Michelle, for not wasting my time, which I'll have you know is quite precious.”

“Right, so there won’t be any consequences then? I mean: I just admitted to my mistake, doesn’t that count for something?” Michelle’s spoke before thinking, her hopes getting raised by the dash of appraisal underlining the headmistress’s tone.

“As much as it tires me at times, I am still bound by school protocol, Miss Mallon. Sending someone over the edge is no light offense, after all.”

Michelle momentarily closed her eyes, as unbidden images came to her of sending Jenny over the edge in quite a different way. It was Sister Michael’s fault, honestly. She shouldn’t have worded it like that. 

Fueled by her lustful contemplations, she glanced over at the focal point of her desire. It was this exact action that broke her out of her randy delirium. Jenny was standing in the middle of the room more or less hunched over, bracing herself on a random desk and here she was shamelessly fantasizing about her. 

“Seeing as we’re still on the topic, you do look rather pale, Jenny. You seem like you could do with some proper rest,” Sister Michael seemingly read her mind, as she affirmed her suspicions.

"Oh, it’s quite alright, Sister. I am pale by nature. I can assure you that there is nothing to worry about in regards to my health. I'd much prefer it if I could attend the rest of my classes now, if you'd so allow me," Jenny spoke, a glimpse of uncertainty poorly hidden beneath a shiny coat of artificial peppiness.

She then slowly walked towards another one of the desks, her steps quite wobbly, before adjusting her stance just enough to start picking up her stack of colorful pastel binders.

"Wait, let me...help," Aisling offered, racing towards her friend, her words losing momentum as she watched Jenny's folders topple to the ground in quick succession.

"I’ll manage, I’ll manage," the head-girl muttered frantically over and over, as she dropped to her knees and obsessively began to rearrange them, which only resulted in some of the papers falling out and fanning out all over the floor, creating a Sysyphean task.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” an exasperated Michelle said, before going over to push an unresponsive Aisling out of the way to come to the prefect’s aid.

“There you go.”

“There was no need for you to do that,” came the fairly snappy reply.

“Well, I did it anyway, so deal with it,” the curly-haired girl was quick to counter her objections, flashing her a disarming smile in the process. Much to her delight, it didn’t miss its effect, with Jenny’s face flushing a light pink hue.

‘Well then, seems like it works just as well on girls, neat,’ Michelle thought to herself, gloating as Jenny quickly shifted her gaze down at ther feet, in a fruitless attempt to cover up her reaction.

“Okay, I’ve seen quite enough: Jenny, I’d strongly advise you to take the rest of the day off. It will be of little use for you to sit at a desk in that manner. You won’t absorb a thing.”

“Sister, please, I’ve missed out on too much as it is,” the head girl protested, acting is if being away from school was going to prove fatal.

"Well, I was always under the impression that you were fairly intelligent, Jenny, but alas, you keep proving me wrong today. You're behaving quite foolish...how disappointing," the head of the school retorted, having her own unique approach to reach the studious girl.

"With all due respect, Sister: even if I were to have an inclination to return home, my parents are both out working at the moment."

"You can come to my house," both Aisling and Michelle echoed at the exact same time, causing the bespectacled girl to glare daggers at Michelle.

"I mean it, we could take the bus back to mine. My ma is a nurse and she has the night shift, so she could have a look," Michelle insisted kindly, moving closer to Jenny. Truth be told, she wanted to gain an edge over Aisling. She mostly tolerated her usually, but she was not keen on having been grassed on by the girl.

Of course she was also semi-wishing to get a free pass out of school. Her mother could be strict, but she was sure she'd be more lenient when they had a guest over, especially a guest as posh as Jenny. Speaking of which, the girl appeared to be genuinely considering her offer, choosing to make eye contact with her over her own best friend. The rejection was subtle, yet sufficient to set the latter girl off, much to Michelle's sneaky enjoyment. 

“Don't tell me you're seriously considering this...this is too absurd for words, Jenny. She doesn't care about you,” Aisling objected all crotchety.

“Aisling, please,” Jenny tried to reason calmly.

“What? You know what she’s like. She keeps showing you her true colours and you just turn a blind eye. You called out to me for help, remember? Why are you being so chummy with her all of a sudden?!”

“I’m not being chummy with her at all, I just want for all of this to blow over!”

“Okay, girls, that’s enough,” Sister Michael clapped her hands, firmly putting an end to the quarrel.

The room was dead-silent for a bit, as vengeful and hurt looks were exchanged to variable degrees. Then Jenny cleared her throat, her voice much more composed as it filtered through the tense air: “I apologize for my out-of-line behaviour, Sister. You might be right after all. I’m not having the most productive day. I think it’d be more sensible for me to leave. As a matter of fact, I’d like to take Michelle up on her offer. I think I’d feel more at ease in the presence of a medical professional.”

“Jenny, don’t,” Aisling begged, sounding like a lost puppy.

“So, you’re coming with me then? Kicking,” came the polar opposite reaction from Michelle.

“I see it is of little importance what I have to say about all of this. I guess I’m only the head of staff after all,” Sister Michael sarcastically poked a hole in their venture.

“Come on, Sister, I’m trying to do the right thing here, don’t you see?” the curly-haired girl countered with bravado.

“As airtight as your ambitious endeavour may sound to you, Michelle, I can’t just allow two underage pupils who just hit puberty to wander off without adult supervision. This is a school, not a zoo.”

“Ach, really, Sister: I’m seventeen, that’s practically a grown-up. And I’m street-smart. Also, I’ll have you know that I’m on quite friendly terms with the bus driver: Harry Gallagher is a sound fella, so he’d definitely sound the alarm if I told him anything was off. Oh, and my home is like a five-minute walk from the stop.”

“Yes, I know him. We used to live on the same street, Harry and I. Yes, I remember I used to take away his marbles and sweets, yet he never once complained…strange bloke...a bit daft, but reliable enough, I suppose,” the headmistress went off on a tangent, her tale eliciting bewilderment in both Aisling and Jenny, while simultaneously filling Michelle with a sense of awe. Her principal was well cool.

“There you are then, and my mum’s at home, so what’s the worst thing that could happen, really? I mean: you’re always telling us about how we need to learn to fend for ourselves and gain responsibility. This would be the ideal time to do so.”

“If I may, Sister: she is right in a sense,” Jenny halfheartedly reinforced her point, which only served to heighten Michelle’s confidence. She was glad to hear the other girl getting more on board with this. She was going to make it worth her while.

Both girls awaited the headmistress’s verdict, Sister Michael’s face giving away very little, as she put her fist to her mouth and left them in suspense for a good while longer.

“You talk a good talk, Michelle and you’re honest. I think you’re gonna go far in life. Very well: the two of you may go, provided that you’d have your mother call me, once you arrive at your house. I don’t want any funny business. This isn’t your leisure time, you’re going to cater to Jenny every whim and make up for your wrongdoings.”

“Of course, Sister, I’d be happy to,” Michelle affirmed, chuffed to bits that she’d actually gotten her way.

“I promise you that I’ll put in twice as much effort tomorrow, Sister,” Jenny added solemnly.

“I’m sure you will, Jenny. Aisling, you should get to class, this spectacle has gone on too long already. Come on, off you pop,”

“Yes, Sister,” said girl gave a stony reply, wounded eyes locked onto Jenny's, hoping to find closure there. The girl in question provided nothing of the sort however, her gaze dull and powerless as she looked right back at her.

"Shall we go then?" Jenny asked apprehensively, after finally gaining the strength to break the non-verbal rift with Aisling, as the other girl walked out of the door. 

“Aye,” Michelle replied, as she went to pick up Jenny's schoolbag.

“I will see you girls tomorrow morning at eight-thirty sharp,” was the last thing they both heard, before Jenny closed the door behind them, leaving their location of woe behind.

  
  



	8. Chapter 8

"So, are you ever going to speak to me again, or…I thought we'd gotten past this by now," Michelle tried to get a conversation going as she and Jenny strolled along the pavement. Ever since leaving the school building, Jenny had only seen it fit to communicate with her through either "yes" or "no". While Michelle was usually not big on lots of back-and-forth, the short, barely-there responses were doing her head in on this particular occasion.

"Jenny? What is with ye now? Cat got your tongue?"

As if on cue, Jenny froze in place, then slowly turned around to say her piece.

"I think I should make something very clear upfront, seeing as you seem to have gotten the wrong idea: I'm merely joining you, cause I think I'd benefit from a check-up. While I certainly appreciate you helping me, I cannot, in good conscience, forgive you for your previous hurtful comments and behaviours. So please, save yourself the trouble of trying to engage me in any sort of amicable banter," she spoke overly formally.

"Ah, you can't hate my guts that much. You covered for me earlier. Thanks, by the way," the other girl offered good-naturedly, after shaking her head at the way Jenny was speaking. It was almost laughably ridiculous how she kept on switching between willingly kissing her and addressing her like she was some subordinate at her prestigious company.

"I never said I hated you, I only want you to understand that me going with you now does not make us friends."

"Who said anything about being friends?" Michelle blatantly flirted, holding a skittish Jenny captive beneath her ardent gaze. For a split second, she thought she saw passion reflected back at her, as both of them stayed rooted to the pavement. 

In a flash, Michelle was at the party again, keeping Jenny pinned to the wall, loving the feeling of control, far-off music blaring to the beat of her wildly thudding heart as their lips melded together effortlessly, her hands feverishly roaming down Jenny's sides and back up, tasting her, not caring about any of the consequences.

Her memories proved to be her downfall, however, as before she had good and well realized, the other girl had already gotten far in front of her, pace fast as she just kept on moving relentlessly.

"Jenny, oi, Jenny!"

"What is it?" Jenny threw back cagily, showing no signs of slowing her roll.

"You're headed the wrong way."

Humiliated, Jenny spun back around, while a thoroughly entertained Michelle chuckled merrily behind her.

* * *

"Afternoon, Harry, what's the craic?" Michelle greeted the bald man affably, upon entering the yellow bus. It was mostly empty at this time of day, which just happened to be just the way she preferred it.

"Michelle, you're a bit early, aren't ye?"

"It's sort of an emergency. I brought baggage," Michelle explained with a straight face, before stepping aside to reveal her travelling partner, who'd only just climbed on herself.

"Who's this then? I don't recall seeing you before, love."

"I'm Jenny," the other girl introduced herself with a polite smile, that was only performing at about six of its usual sixty watts, as she shook the driver's hand.

"Do us a favour, Harry: Jenny here isn't doing too excellent at the moment, so make sure to drive carefully."

"No bother, I'll just wait till you girls are seated."

"Be forewarned though: she's a handful," Michelle remarked, already walking up to the very back of the vehicle, with an irked Jenny following close behind her.

"I can speak for myself."

"Can ye now? More power to you," Michelle teased, completely unbothered, as she found her favorite spot smack dab in the middle of the final row of seats.

She sank down, carelessly dropping her luggage onto the speckled flooring beneath. She already massively regretted carrying Jenny's stupid, hefty bag. What did she keep in there anyways? The Seven Wonders of the World? 

Resting her head back against the seat, she closed her eyes and wearily rubbed at her temples. Then, not sensing any sort of movement in her direct periphery, she lazily opened them again, only to see Jenny still firmly afoot. The shorter girl was holding onto the nearest handrail, as she eyed the seat beside Michelle skeptically.

"What's the problem now? I won't bite, ye know...unless that's what you like," the bold teen asked in a seemingly innocuous manner, before friskily grinding her teeth.

Put on the spot, Jenny began looking anywhere safe for the girl right in front of her. Then, after making sure Michelle had quit her antics, she pursed her lips and commented:

"It just looks a wee bit...unsanitary."

"Sweet Jesus...there, better?" Michelle asked, her energy shifting completely, as she shrugged off her blazer to spread it over the other seat like a makeshift towel.

"Thank you."

Both of them settled in their seats, the droning engine of the bus the only soundtrack to their outing, as a mist of uncomfortable silence draped itself around the pair once again. Each one of them seeking out their own pastime, as Jenny kept checking her watch like a nutter, seemingly every five seconds, while Michelle started digging through her schoolbag in hopes of finding a leftover Cadbury's Caramel.

"Aren't you cold?" Jenny ultimately decided to break the status quo, lifting up from her seat a bit, as she was perfectly prepared to hand back the item of clothing to her newly gained benefactor.

"No, keep it. You wouldn't want your arse to fall off from touching the filthy chairs us common folk sit on," Michelle shot back, repressing the part of her touched by the warmth colouring the prefect’s dulcet tone, to counteract the statement with icy bitterness instead.

"I didn't mean to imply…" 

"Save it," the curly-haired girl kissed teeth at her. Then, once she had made sure Jenny was mortified enough to face the other way, she wrapped her arms around herself and soothingly began rubbing at her own shoulders.

‘Ah, much better,’ Michelle thought to herself, only to have her blissful, cozy bubble popped almost as soon as it had formed.

“Take it please, I don’t really need it,” Jenny insisted, holding out the blazer.

“Listen, I don’t give a flying fuck about the dicking blazer. I gave it to ye, now keep it. I prefer it off anyway. Frankly, I hate not being able to wear what I want and having to stuff meself in a school uniform every morning.”

“Oh, I’m sorry you feel that way. I happen to be quite fond of it. I personally think it’s a lovely outfit,” Jenny responded to the rant in a surprisingly sympathetic and cordial fashion, before looking down and running a hand over her own uniform with a satisfied smile.

“Well, of course you would think that. You look fantastic in it...uck, I didn’t fucking mean to say that, I...fuck, green suits you well, is all.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected praise, Jenny just stared at the other girl for a while, before both of her cheeks turned a modest crimson.

“I...thank you, that’s nice to hear,” she stated sincerely, once the blood had gone back up to her head.

“Right, well I did mean it,” Michelle rambled, unforeseeably dealing with her own shyness as her eyes darted, in order to avoid acknowledging the deep fondness radiating from Jenny’s glowing complexion. She’d never seen a fella look at her quite like that: it put the fear of God into her.

Obviously out for the absolute demolishing of her entire persona, the other girl decided to prolong her torture by handing her the blazer back, hereby causing their hands to brush together. In reality, it probably only took a few seconds but in Michelle’s warped perception, the soothing, silky caress of Jenny’s soft and slender fingers gliding across her own clammy ones, seemed to go on for a lifetime. She was fully able to take in touching her this time, unlike before when her stress and worry were skyrocketing through the roof. She was honestly sort of elated that Jenny was putting her hands anywhere near her again, after all the stunts she’d pulled.

Suddenly very bothered by the sweat clinging to her palms, she absentmindedly used said blazer to wipe at her grubby mitts like an utter spastic.

‘Good going, brainiac: now she probably thinks you’re a whacko,’ she inwardly reprimanded herself, before tilting her head back up to focus on her surroundings again. Noticing just where they had come to a halt, relief and relaxation flooded her whole body like a nice hit of weed.

“Well, I guess, I’d better put this on then...we’re here.”

* * *

“Ma, ma, I’m back! I know you’re gonna want to give me a tonging, but just wait until you he...ma?” Michelle expressed her utter befuddlement to her empty house, her head swiveling this way and that, in a desperate effort to try and trace her missing mother. 

“There seems to be no one else here,” Jenny remarked redundantly, currently holding onto her own blazer as she joined Michelle in the living room.

“Really, you think?”

“Your home is...quaint.”

“Oh please, don’t give me that shite,” an already overwrought Michelle retorted, knowing just what was behind the word “quaint” when uppity people like Jenny said it.

“Ma, I brought someone. I think you’re gonna like her,” she announced, frantically striding over to the kitchen, only to find it just as empty as the other rooms. Sighing, she briefly rested her hand on the table, before her eyes caught sight of something she hadn’t noticed before. Snatching the note from atop the microwave, she read it in silence, eyes widening as she went.

“Did you manage to...oh...”

Having finished, Michelle balled the scrap of paper up in her hands.

“Well, all the fucks on a stick,” she exclaimed, right before turning to look at her equally nonplussed guest.


	9. Chapter 9

_ "Michelle, got called into work for emergency. Probably won't be back til ten. Dinner's in the microwave." _

Jenny's voice rang out through the small kitchen, as Michelle registered the message for the second time. Utterly done with it all, she threw up an arm in exasperation.

"Well, that's just fucking grand, isn't it? I go through all of this trouble and she's out. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?" she complained, while feverishly beginning to pace around the kitchen.

"Maybe you should have a bit of a breather," Jenny suggested calmly, the suggestion ironic as all hell as she was the one who still looked like she'd aggressively been pelted with pieces of white chalk.

"You're right. You know, it isn't the end of the world. I mean: you could still have a lie down, if you'd like. I'm no nurse but I can do my best."

"I'm...not so sure, I think me agreeing to come here was quite foolish. I should...I should just leave," Jenny brought out hesitantly, before heading straight back into the direction she had come from.

"Yeah? And go where? Your house, where you'll be all alone? Don't be daft. You're not well. Just stay here for a bit," Michelle insisted, not wasting any time in going after her and grabbing onto her wrist.

"I'm sure I will be alright," Jenny fobbed her off, voice constricted as she yanked herself out of the invasive grasp.

"I swear, the one time I try and do something decent..." the other girl sighed, placing her hands on her hips.

"What are you so scared of anyway? I won't jump your bones or anything, I just want to help."

"That's all," she then emphasized quietly, blue eyes closing up the spaces in between blurred lines, as they bored themselves profoundly into the other girl's darker ones.

I'm not sure, not sure if it...would be very wise," the girl in question gradually returned to the here and now, clearing her throat and casting her eyes downward.

"Come on now. I have the lot: food, drinks, pills… I'll get you a glass of water right this second if you'd like. And something to eat...like something salty...right, salty: my ma always says that's the way to go when you're all muddled in the head," Michelle suggested hastily, grinning like a fool at having remembered the little nugget of information.

"I would like some water if it's not too much trouble. My throat does feel somewhat dry."

"So I've noticed," Michelle murmured with a triumphant smile, getting right to it, as she grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it to the brim with the refreshing liquid.

"There you are."

"Thank you," Jenny stated gratefully, accepting the glass and taking a small sip. 

"Do you want to maybe sit down for a wee bit? The sofa is ancient, but it's also quite nice: you can just sort of sink into it, you know."

Jenny nodded, eyes flitting uneasily before following the other girl out into the living room and taking a seat on the lumpy, brown piece of furniture. Not quite knowing what to say, she continued to slowly sip her water, while Michelle lingered beside the coffee table.

"I already feel better, thank you," she sighed in relief, once she'd finished her drink.

"Well, I'm glad I could be of service," Michelle smiled kindly at her, causing her to respond with a more tight-lipped version of her own.

"Could I have some more?"

"Of course, I'll be right back," the usually contrarian teen was eager to please, as she rushed back to the kitchen for a refill.

When she returned, she was mildly perplexed to find Jenny standing by the bookshelf, seemingly deep in thought as she held onto a framed picture. Michelle didn't have to look twice, as she knew exactly which photo she was holding: it was the one of her winning a cup at the local fair, this past summer.

Deciding to play a joke, she slowly tiptoed over to where the other girl was standing.

"Nosing through my photos, are ye?" she semi-whispered close to her ear.

Jenny gave out a shriek, the smile dying on her face as she brusquely whirled around.

"You startled me."

"Mission accomplished then."

"I...it's a nice picture," was Jenny's eventual bashful input.

"Well, of course," Michelle affirmed, gesturing to herself as if stating the obvious, this action only seeming to fluster the other girl more.

"Here's uh…here's your water," she then went on, attempting to defuse the weird tension in the air.

"Right, I think I'll just go and sit back down, if you don't mind. I'm a bit tired."

"Go ahead, well...maybe put that back first."

"Oh, of course," the prefect gave a distracted reply, before carefully placing the photo back where she'd found it.

It was only when she had sat down again, that Michelle took her chances and flopped down next to her.

"The feeling better didn't last that long then?" she remarked with some disappointment, taking a minute to gage the other girl's complexion.

"Oh, I do feel better, I'm just fatigued: it's been quite a stressful day."

"I know, it was for me too," the curly-haired girl sympathized, right before the both of them settled into a soothing silence.

"I've been meaning to ask you: why are you doing all of this? You weren't exactly being well...civil to me before," the other girl ultimately pondered out loud, effectively bursting through the calmth in the most misguided manner possible.

"What?" Michelle shook her head, sitting up a little straighter. Here she'd been thinking they were finally seeing eye to eye, yet there Jenny went: shattering that illusion.

"Well, the things you said earlier...I didn't get much of an indication that you liked me very much or if you've ever liked me for that matter. I mean: you complimented my outfit yes, but…"

"Are you fucking serious, Jenny?! Maybe don't be a bitch to my friend, I might treat you better," Michelle bit back, rising up from the couch with a jolt. Her sympathy only went so far and if Jenny was going to start acting difficult for the umpteenth time, she'd have no qualms in sending her on her way, ill health be damned.

"I told you before: I only wanted Clare to realize that what she was doing was wrong. I bear her no ill will," the latter girl continued to heatedly stand behind her actions.

"Still on that, are we? Well, I'll just have this back then, won't I?" Michelle fumed in derision, snatching the glass out of her hand to put it on the coffee table, or...that had been the intention at least.

"No, wait, don't…aah!"Jenny gave out a startled cry, as the glass shattered into pieces right in front of her feet.

"Shit," the taller girl cursed, before bending down to start picking up the shards one by one.

"Well, I hope you're proud of yourself, Jenny. That's what you get for being a stupid bigo...ah, fucking fuck!" she hurriedly retracted her hand, as her face contorted in pain.

She took a minute to recompose herself, covering up the hand with its counterpart, before she went right back to collecting the glass from the carpet.

"You're hurt," Jenny noted gravily, eyes fixed on the other girl's profusely bleeding index finger.

"Bollocks, it's just a wee cut: it'll heal on its own."

"You're hurt....Stop that, you're hurt!" the head girl's voice came out much higher than usual, as she suddenly grabbed a tight hold of the injured hand and instinctively pulled it up into her lap.

The small action served as a brief cease-fire, as Michelle allowed the other girl to simply hold her hand. The cool, firm press of Jenny's hand on top contrasting with the warmth of her skirt beneath. To Michelle, the sensation was oddly comforting.

"You can't do that to yourself," Jenny urged softly, locking eyes with her former enemy, as her thumb began rubbing soothing circles on the palm.

"Yeah, and why would you give a toss?" Michelle aggressively decided to put a stop to the lovey-dovey proceedings, as she jerked her hand away, giving the other girl one last lingering look, before she disappeared off into the bathroom, leaving an extremely upset Jenny in her wake.

* * *

"I tidied up your carpet," was the first thing she heard, once she'd finally emerged from the bathroom again, her wound chaotically covered up with several sticking plasters. Christ, she was already annoyed by the other girl's fake chirpiness and she hadn't even properly entered the room.

"I truly am sorry about your finger."

"The finger is not the thing you should be sorry for."

"I don't know what you want from me," Jenny quickly changed her tune, highly insulted.

"What I  _ want  _ from you is that you stop being such a fucking hypocrite! Yeah, Clare snogged another girl, but so did you...twice! You could have blamed the first one on me, but you went right for it the second time!"

"You're just gonna have to face the facts, Jenny: you wanted to kiss me and guess what: I'm not a fella," Michelle amped up her rant.

"Nope, still not a fella," she subsequently emphasized, while checking the inside of her skirt.

"I find none of this very funny!"

"Oh and you think I do?! You think I was over the moon when I found out I enjoyed snogging someone as completely insufferable as you?! You want to know something? I actually felt sorry for you earlier, but I don't anymore! You're just as much of a condescending twat as you've always been!"

"I see!" Jenny seethed, before proceeding to storm out of the room and march right over to the front door.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" 

"Aah!" Michelle was beyond raging as she violently kicked the already slightly unsteady coffee table, upon hearing the door slam shut.

Satisfied with her little act of anarchy, she paced over to the sofa, where she slumped down and wearily ran a hand through her hair. She sat for a few minutes just mulling things over and had only just begun to recover, when she was startled by the click of the front door.

"I have nowhere else to go."

Michelle gawked, flabbergasted, as a soaking wet Jenny suddenly stood before her, the green of her uniform considerably darker as it clung to her skin.

"It's raining, it's cold and I have nowhere else to go," the girl admitted somewhat pitifully, her voice breaking, right before she burst into tears.

"Jenny," Michelle began, hazily getting up and walking over to place a hesitant hand on her shoulder.

Much to her growing surprise, the other girl immediately sagged against her, arms automatically finding purchase on her back as she buried her head into her shoulder.

"It's alright, you can stay...you can stay," Michelle muttered, loosely holding onto her as she continued to ceaselessly let out her pain.


	10. Chapter 10

"There, there," Michelle spoke ineptly, her words getting lost in an orchestra of oncoming sobs. She was all fingers and thumbs, as her hands kept floundering inches away from Jenny's back. 

After the initial instinct to look out for the other girl had worn off, she'd gone all funny again. She had never quite gotten the hang of how to properly behave in these types of situations. She'd done alright earlier, but that had been a much more pressing ordeal altogether. Fair, Jenny was in a great deal of distress, but she was nowhere close to fighting for her breath.

If anything she seemed way less clueless about how to carry herself, clutching desperately at Michelle, as she kept on sniffling and whimpering. 

It was on the occasion of one such a whimper that she bent her head at a slightly different angle, causing her hot breath to inadvertently fan right across the nape of Michelle's neck. The innocuous gust of air tickled the sparse, tiny hairs there, hereby effectively setting the other girl aflame.

"Alright now, Jenny," she got out through gritted teeth, eventually mustering up the willpower to gently push the shorter girl away. The last thing she needed at a time like this was the urge to get on top of an emotionally fragile person. This whole extravaganza almost reminded her of the bathroom-incident earlier and they didn't need a repeat performance of that.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," the prefect apologized, hurriedly trying to get rid of any traces of tears as she took out a handkerchief and delicately swiped it down the both of her cheeks.

"It's all good, we all get like that, don't we? Well, I can't say I do much of it myself but still...sometimes you need an outlet," Michelle did her utmost to reassure a disheveled Jenny with a clearing of her throat. Then, noticing how the latter girl's name was finely embroidered on the white cloth, she had to seriously suppress the urge to shake her head.

"I got your slipover all wet."

"Jenny, it's only water and it's a slipover. It's not the end of the world."

"Anyways, you look a far bigger mess...I meant it like you're wet: you're far more wet than I am," she quickly corrected herself, upon seeing the indignant look gracing the other girl's face.

"Right, listen: I am aware that we're not on the best of terms but...do you think I could make use of your facilities to freshen up?"

"Aye, you've seen where it is."

"Thank you."

"It's nothing," Michelle grew short with her again. She'd much rather the girl be courteous about more important matters, as opposed to obsessively thanking her for the most insignificant of stuff.

She subsequently settled right back on the couch, letting her mind gradually fade out as her ears became accustomed to the muffled whirring of the hairdryer.

"Michelle...Michelle."

Michelle grinned: this was a pretty class dream if she were to say so herself. The pleasant lilt of the girl's voice, her delicate hands touching her shoulders. Come to think of it...she sounded an awful lot like Jenny.

"Hmm, Jenny," she moaned groggily, reaching out to touch her right back.

"Michelle, you really should wake up."

Her eyes shot open...it had not been a dream.

"I'm sorry, Jenny. I must've drifted off," she took a reddener, as she hurriedly pulled back her hand from where it had been resting rather snuggly against Jenny's cheek.

"It's alright, no harm no foul," the prefect smiled woodenly from ear to ear, so much so that Michelle feared her lips were going to stay glued together like that.

Taking in the other girl more thoroughly, which was quickly becoming her new pastime, even Michelle herself would be hard-pressed to believe she'd just been crying her heart out. Aside from her slightly reddened eyes, Jenny was back to looking pristine as ever with her glossy, recently dried hair tied together in her signature braid, the hairdo neatly topped off by a navy-blue headband.

"Here, I've been meaning to give this to you for a while now."

"Thanks," Michelle nodded, feeling the weight of the cold, damp metal in her hand.

"It is...yours, isn't it? I mean: it has to be, I found it after we...after you kissed me," Jenny asked, tripping over her words, thrown off by the intent way the other girl was spinning the hoop earring round and round.

"It is mine alright, I thought I already told you as much."

"I placed some of my attire on your radiator, I hope that's not an inconvenience to you," the shorter girl then swiftly steered over to safer topics of conversation, her smile solidly more beaming than before.

"It's not," Michelle replied gruffly, reigning in the need to have a go at her for bigger issues which definitely  _ did _ serve as an inconvenience to her. 

The longer she sat there just observing Jenny and thinking about everything, however, the more inclined she felt to consider giving her the benefit of the doubt. She might have grossly underestimated just how much this whole mess had thrown the other girl in a turmoil. While just necking for the heck of it with either lads or girls, was not that great of an upheaval to her, it might've been a lot more to take in for someone the likes of Jenny. 

Allowing the myriad of ponderings to pass through the carousel of her mind once again, she ultimately decided to opt for a drastically different approach altogether. She only hoped that she wasn't gonna severely regret it later.

"Jenny, do you have a minute?" Her cautious words had to travel further than she'd anticipated, as she became aware that a contently humming Jenny had gone to search through her school-bag, all the way across the room.

"Of course," the girl replied, pausing her activities, as she slowly rose to her feet and turned to walk in her direction.

"I uh...I'd like to tell you something and this isn't going to be easy for me, so please just let me finish," Michelle began, becoming slightly intimidated when she saw Jenny giving her her full attention.

"I think I owe you an apology and not just an half-arsed one like before. I...shouldn't have been such a dick about that kiss at your party. You probably wanted your first kiss to be all special, with fireworks and the like. Not to mention with a lovely, righteous bloke who was head over heels for ye. I'm sorry I wrecked that for you, I am."

"Granted: you did set me off, but I could have sorted it out in a number of other ways, as opposed to doing what I did," Michelle briefly squeezed her eyes shut, swallowing her pride to do what she felt was just.

"Even with all that out of the way, I still hope you enjoyed it for what it was. It might not have been a kiss for the ages, but I thought it was quite cracker. There, I said what I said: make of it what you will."

"I...appreciate you saying that," Jenny brought out sincerely, after what seemed to Michelle like forever.

"As far as the kiss is concerned, I found it to be...adequate. Then again, I don't suppose I have very much to compare it to, have I?" she went on, the beginnings of a genuine smile just slightly flirting with the corners of her lips.

"Good, I figured now would be as good a time to bring it up as any, I mean: seeing as you're here anyway, I might as well," a more subdued Michelle returned the gesture, discovering herself to be oddly touched by the childlike mirth gradually welling to life in the depths of Jenny's eyes. Following the innate need to be in the girl's vicinity, she mindlessly began pacing towards her.

"You know it takes...courage admitting that you're in the wrong," the latter girl retorted sheepishly, as she pushed back a stray tendril of her hair

"Yeah well, sometimes you sort of have to."

"Still, it was very...brave of you," Jenny went on, her velvety words taking on an almost alluring quality to the ears of an already more susceptible Michelle, who was now standing but a hair's breadth away from her.

A current of pleasurable pinpricks subsequently ignited the taller girl's veins, when Jenny slowly raised her head up to face her, the other girl's eyes growing considerably darker as they locked onto her own. 

"Jenny," she whispered, hand finding its way to the shorter girl's cheek.

Jenny gasped, leaning into the touch, nose tilting against Michelle's, who fought in vain to hold back the groan emanating from her throat.

"Michelle, we...we shouldn...hmmm," Jenny's already half-hearted protests were shoved down into the abyss, as an eager Michelle mashed their faces together, hands getting tangled up in Jenny's hair as they found their way to the back of her head. Her wound was all but forgotten as she lost herself in this moment.

Jenny, although shaky and uncertain at first, was rapidly catching up to her kissing partner, their mouths beginning to move as one, appearing to be fused together by a force field of magnetic energy.

Michelle found herself slightly taken aback, ecstasy boarding the elevator to levels she didn't even know existed, when Jenny suddenly overtook her in fervour, repeatedly nipping at her bottom lip and drawing her in closer than perceived possible.

Unable to leave her thirst unquenched for a minute longer, she shoved at Jenny's shoulders, causing them both to topple over the armrest of the sofa.

"Fuck, Jenny, you're so hot," she muttered, staring down at the heavily panting object of her affection with hooded eyes.

Slowly inching the fingers of her good hand up over the thick material of Jenny's tights, she bent down towards the other girl's neck, fully intent on indulging herself endlessly further. She might not have had any prior experience in properly trying it on with girls, but she did have a rough idea what felt good.

"Get away from me," the panicky rejection was like a downpour of icicles, the sting infinite, as her hand was slapped away and the previously sweetly caressing palms violently pressed her backwards.

"What the fuck, Jenny?"

"Is this why you said you were sorry then? So you could have your way with me?!" Jenny shouted incredulously, voice awash with ache as she hurriedly sat up to smooth out the wrinkles in her skirt.

"No, not at all. It just happened, I...I thought you wanted it."

"Oh, so  _ I'm  _ at fault?!"

"Why does  _ anyone _ have to be at fault? We were only having a bit of fun."

"Right...That's all you're ever concerned about, isn't it?  _ Fun _ ," the prefect spat.

"Jenny, please don't do this now," Michelle did her best to mend things, her hand attempting fruitlessly to grasp onto Jenny's, she herself afflicted by the apparent infringement of the other girl's feelings, that she so willingly had committed.

"Just leave me be," the crushed girl shut down any chance at a meaningful exchange, as she disappeared behind the bathroom door and out of Michelle's line of vision.


	11. Chapter 11

Michelle sighed for the umpteenth time, her hands loosely resting on her knees as she stared at the closed bathroom door. She was struggling to understand just why Jenny kept making things so overly complicated. They'd been having a good time, hadn't they? In the moment, she'd honest to God believed that Jenny had been up for more than just a peck. The kissing had been well intense, stoking a fire inside of her unlike any other. Everything had been going so well, much better than before at least. For a brief few seconds...they were actually seeing eye to eye. And yeah, maybe she should've controlled herself just a wee bit better, but she hadn't been able to stop from the moment Jenny had looked at her like she did.

"Ach, fuck," she quietly cursed herself out for her thoughtless actions as the signal gradually turned on again in her fuzzy brain. She could be thick as fuck sometimes when it came to having a proper handle on her hormones. Jenny had been so nice...almost in awe of her really and the way she'd eyed her up all sensual...she still got shivers when she thought about it. What it came down to was that this mess could have easily been avoided, if she'd just kept a bit further away. She should've known Jenny wasn't ready for what she had in mind and couldn't help but to scold herself for always managing to upset the other girl, even when trying to achieve the exact opposite. 

After what felt like hours, the much-dreaded door finally creaked open again.

"If only I'd listened to Aisling," was the first thing Jenny muttered as she gingerly stepped outside.

"She's the only one that has my best interests at heart, you know. Out of everyone in the whole school, she's the only person who truly respects me and cares for me," she went on, smiling sadly, as Michelle wordlessly looked on.

"She's the only one who supports me: always stressing how good I am at writing for the school magazine and at singing...I always believed that I was talented at singing, but you don't seem to agree with that, do you?"

"Look, Jenny: I'm prepared to own up to a lot, I am, but don't expect me to tell fibs. You're not a good singer," Michelle chimed in sloppily, causing the other girl to scoff.

"But I believe you could improve with some guidance. I mean: you have a nice enough speaking voice," the curly-haired girl continued in what to her was a heartfelt manner, rising from her seat to go over and try to pick up the pieces.

"I'm supposed to be grateful for that, am I? Like when I showed you an ounce of kindness earlier and you took advantage of me?"

"I didn't take ad…I mean it wasn't my intention to make you feel uncomfortable. I really thought you were into it."

"Well, you thought wrong. How could I be? It's not right!" Jenny blurted out, swallowing heavily, before turning her face away.

"Jenny…" Michelle began, both upset and genuinely concerned at the other girl's sheer denial. More and more it began to dawn on her that Jenny's bigoted speech was seated much deeper than she'd first perceived it to be.

"I thought I told you to leave me be. What we did shouldn't have happened and this has been well and truly the last time I participated in your improper acts."

"You keep prattling on like that: " _ you _ kissed me",  _ your _ acts", but: you were there. I get how that might be hard for ye to face, but…"

"You know nothing about me. Before you kissed me, you never paid any notice to me, except when you thought it fair to insult me, so please don't pretend like you're some expert on what might and what might not be hard for me. You know who does know? Aisling. And now, because of you, I'm at odds with her!"

"Oh no, you're not putting this all on me: you had a choice in the matter. You were free to go with your mate. I wouldn't have stopped you. In fact I kind of wish you had. It would've saved me a lot of trouble, let me tell ye," Michelle made a case for herself, attempting to stay composed in the onslaught of unjust accusations.

"We agree on something then, I wish much the same," Jenny laughed humorlessly, her breathing accelerating as she began to pace around the small space.

"Jenny, for fuck's sake, just ease up," Michelle came round, stepping out in front of her to lay a hand on her shoulder, a gesture which the other girl was quick to dodge.

"Don't. Just stay out of my way!"

"Well, kind of tricky to do that in my own house, isn't it?" the crass teen smiled knowingly, trying her hardest to ease the tension.

"I suppose you could have my room though, just to let off some steam. I'll be right here either way. It's the furthest door on the right, help yourself."

"I am not staying in your room," Jenny retorted, as if the very idea was fanciful at best.

"And why is that? I think you'd rather like it there, to be honest. I have a lot of interesting magazines…you like fellas, don't ye, Jenny? Cause there's a lot of fit fellas in the magazines, posing in their kecks and everything," Michelle chuckled with a raise of her brow, unable to resist teasing the other girl.

"I'm not interested," the prefect fumed, only giving her hostess more ammunition.

"Not interested in fellas? Aye, I already guessed as much."

"You know what I meant."

"Do I? Listen, all jokes aside: I think you'd benefit from just talking to someone about it," Michelle then proclaimed in a much more earnest manner.

"Don't walk away while I'm talking to you. Now I'm obviously not the right fit, seeing as one: I don't do deep conversation very well and two: I still fancy myself a bloke, I mean: Robbie Williams could ring me up any day, but you could try Clare: Clare is full gay and I'm sure she'll have a chat with you, if you just explain everything to her."

Michelle had further flashbacks to the party, as she once again found herself marching behind a stubborn Jenny, while the other girl remained perfectly mute.

"Jenny, I'm not kidding: if you won't do it for me, at least do it for yourself. It's not healthy the way you're carrying on."

"I'm sure I don't have the faintest idea what it is you're referring to," Jenny abruptly spun around, getting so close up in her face that Michelle briefly assumed she had different intentions.

"Right, be like that then," she acquiesced, with a dismissive wave of her hand, giving up on trying to get through to a brick wall. Strangely enough it was her exact refusal to address the issue further that seemed to cause Jenny grief, as she bowed her head down and rubbed a hand over her taut face.

"There's nothing wrong with it. So what if you like girls? It doesn't make a lick of difference. Literally no one cares. You keep raving about Aisling being such a good friend. Why not tell her? You don't have to keep it as a big secret. And if she doesn't like it, you could start hanging 'round with us. Aside from James, everyone's pretty brilliant, you know."

"I mean, take Erin for instance: she's always sticking her neck out for minorities and the like. She'd be on your side, no question. James is so obnoxiously saccharine I feel like stabbing him with a fork every five minutes. Clare is homosexual herself and Orla is well...she's Orla."

"And, fair enough: we're Catholic, we go to a Catholic school, it would probably be frowned upon by some of the old biddy sisters, but most people our age don't give a fuck. It's 1995, for fuck's sake, not the sodding middle ages."

"Stop it! Please just, I've had enough...I…" Jenny suddenly interrupted her, wiping at her forehead with a trembling hand, before sinking down right in the middle of the carpeted floor.

"Jenny, there's chairs for that," Michelle made a futile attempt to lighten the mood, her own eyes widening as she regarded the scene in front of her.

"You don't understand, do you? You truly do not understand what it's like for me," Jenny stated, while repeatedly bringing her hand down like it was some kind of hammer.

"I'm sure it won't be as bad as you think, hi," Michelle slowly positioned herself next to the shorter girl.

"You saying that only proves my point," the prefect spoke faintly, shaking her head, before getting up.

Michelle heaved a breath that came from deep within, the sound of it stressing the sheer hopelessness she felt, as she watched Jenny walk away.

* * *

"Having a good juke at those fellas then?" Michelle jested, upon encountering a still deflated Jenny in her bedroom.

"I'm only joking, Jenny," she clarified. She did realize it might've sounded a tad insensitive in light of the circumstances, but humor had always been a good coping mechanism for her. What else was she supposed to do? Cry?

"It was not funny by any means."

"I know."

"You have a cozy room, I rather like these lights you have here: they really add character," Jenny broke the unpleasant silence, temporarily restoring the harmony, as she smiled cheerily and gently grasped onto a wee green led light, which was dangling from Michelle's curtain.

"Oh well, one does one's best. It's the fairy lights we had on at Christmas. I'd better unplug them: my ma is gonna have a right fit if she sees I left them on, you know: fire hazard and all that."

"No, please don't do that: they're quite enchanting," Jenny put a stop to Michelle's action, with the whisper of a touch on her arm.

"Alright then, anything for you," the curly-haired girl winked, prompting the other girl to swiftly take her hand away and turn over to the wall, where she took something out of her pocket, only to begin studying the item intently.

"What do you have there?" Michelle subsequently asked, curiosity awakened by the silver glinting in Jenny's palm, as she nodded in its direction.

"It's of no matter," the other girl kept her off the trail, strenuously clamping all of her fingers around the object and clutching it to her chest, in order to keep it safe from Michelle's inquisitive gaze.

"Suit yourself," the girl in question shrugged, before flopping down on her bed. Then, almost out of habit, she proceeded to tug the still damp slipover over her head and tossed it over to the side, before undoing a button on her blouse. She winced, as it proved more tricky to do so, without the self-evident use of her index finger.

Somehow sensing that she was being watched, she looked into the mirror only to find Jenny cautiously peeking at her from beside her nightstand, while biting at her lip.

Her stomach rippling with the excitement of wuthering waves, she decided to have her money's worth with this, as she went to loosen up two more buttons in feigned nonchalance, subtly keeping her eye on an unsuspecting Jenny all the while.

"Huhmm." 

Jenny's exaggerated throat-clearing proved sufficient to make her turn around, before taking on a posture of mock indignance.

"What? This is what I do every single day after school: get out of these rags and into something a bit more comfortable. You're the one dandering about in my room. I'm not doing anything wrong. I still have a bra on and everything, see?" she resolved to stir up even more havoc, as she lightly pulled at one of the shoulder straps of her black bra. The effect was immediate and Michelle's confidence got a massive boost, as Jenny's complexion instantly turned beet red.

"I'll just be outside."

"Oh, you can stay and watch. I'm not bothered."

"Why are you doing this?" Jenny brought out, each word appearing to cause her physical pain.

"Because I am trying to show ye that this isn't something to be bashful over. You want to have a quick look at me? By all means, go ahead. It's only normal when you're attracted to someone," Michelle insisted, rising from the mattress and gradually drawing nearer to a mortified Jenny.

"I'm not attracted to you," the argument held little water, as the shorter girl wasn't even looking at her while she said it.

"Very well, I'm not attracted to you either. I go around snogging you cause I have absolutely nothing better to do," the curly-haired girl remarked sarcastically.

"Don't take that tone with me."

"Stop lying to me then and more importantly: stop lying to yourself," Michelle urged firmly.

"I'd look if I saw you like that," she pressed on, lips almost involuntary gravitating towards Jenny's.

"Stop," the girl in question begged, before turning her face sideways and having great effort in keeping her eyes off of the sight in front of her.

Sensing the shorter girl's distress, Michelle stepped back again to allow her some breathing room.

"Not attracted to me, are ye?" she then proceeded to ask in a deadly serious tone, right before grabbing a hold of the tiny silver cross Jenny was still clinging onto.

"This looks very nice and all, but you know what looks even better? Being true to yourself. I told you before you were a faker, seems like you're proving me right too. You want that? To prove me right when I slagged you off?"

It's not as simple as you're making it out to be," Jenny shook her head, as she brusquely snatched the valuable item out of her hands.

"It could be. It's up to you, Jenny….it's up to you."


End file.
